A traditional May Day Democratic Manifestation
was held along Nevsky Prospekt and ended with a rally
at Konnyushennaya Square. This year the main slogan of
the manifestation was "For Russia Free from Political
Reprisals and Religious Obscurantism!"

The democratic manifestation was prepared and conducted
by an organizational committee formed on the basis of
the Democratic Petersburg coalition. According to different
estimates, the number of participants of the manifestation
amounted to 1.5 - 2 thousand people.

The rally meeting at at Konnyushennaya Square was opened
by Alexander Kobrinsky, deputy of the Legislative Assembly
from the YABLOKO party...

...But I should note that
the reaction of Vladimir Putin’s regime to the mass
protests was not only intensification of reprisals. Putin
responded to the challenge with a specific state ideology
based on aggressive clericalism and complete denial of
the liberal values. This is a significant difference from
the policies of ex President Medvedev who often appealed
to the liberal values.
Orthodoxy has been exploited by the regime in a very specific
way. The emphasis is laid on its contraposition to the
Western values and way of life. This "sacred resource"
provides the authorities an ideological basis for criticism
of the human rights concept, as well as political systems
based on respect for civil liberties......New evidence of the growth of aggressive
clericalism has been emerging every day. The Russian parliament
adopted a law envisaging five years of imprisonment for
the injury of religious beliefs and feelings. However,
the law protects only “traditional confessions”
and Russian
Orthodoxy in the first place. It is obvious that opponents
of clericalisation of the state will become the first
victims of this vague norm based on subjective estimates...

Alexander Shishlov, Ombudsperson in St.
Petersburg and YABLOKO Bureau member, made his first report
in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.
On the whole he received 1643 written appeals, complaints
and requests from citizens of St. Petersburg in 2012.
Most complaints referred to housing problems. Over half
of them (52.3 per cent) dealt with failure to get housing
from the government’s fund, 22 per cent dealt with
housing property title, 10.7 per cent with maintenance
of the housing, 9.8 per cent with housing construction
and 5.2 per cent with bills on utility services...
The Ombudsman recalled that dozens of people had been
detained at different street protest actions in 2012;
whereas the authorities explained the fact of their detention
with the help of this law. “However, the court did
not find any violations in their actions,” Shishlov
said...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin called
to pay close attention to the Russian regions where dozens
of people had been persecuted for political reasons. He
made such a statement at a rally against the political
reprisals that took place in Moscow on April 17.

Sergei Mitrokhin recalled journalist Michael
Beketov who was attacked and severely injured in 2008
and died of severe injuries in April 2013. The names of
those who ordered this crime were known, but they were
not arrested. Also many cases of murdered journalists
and public figures remained unsolved, Mitrokhin said.

"What should be done to make our law enforcement
system work and so that it stopped being so sluggish and
inert, amorphous and unclear? One should simply start
to really fight against corruption, as Alexei Navalny
has begun doing or Maxim Petlin, leader of the Sverdlovsk
branch of YABLOKO, who was imprisoned for disclosing a
corruption scheme of Yekaterinburg authorities"...

On April 17, another rally organised by
Vladimir Putin’s supporters took place by the office
of the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO in the South of Russia.
It is already the 15th such rally held under the slogan
“Hands off from Vladimir Putin!” taking place
by YABLOKO’s office...

The Executive Committee of Liberal International,
meeting in Beirut recalls the burning of books by Nazis
in 1936, rightly condemned by the Free World, and expresses
its horror and indignation at the action by ultra-Orthodox
thugs who invaded the Headquarter of the Yabloko Party
in Moscow on March 15 removing publications and burning
them publicly in a Moscow Square.

The Executive Committee notes the failure
of the Russian and Moscow Authorities to investigate,
prosecute or even condemn this action with its sinister
implications for basic freedoms and demands that they
do so without delay, guaranteeing the right of all Russians
to publish freely.

The Executive Committee calls on the Russian
authorities to adhere to their commitment as a member
country of the Council of Europe and investigate into
the accident and punish those guilty.

The Executive Committee further urges
ALDE members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe to sponsor a resolution condemning this action
and the failure of the Russian Authorities to take appropriate
action.

Civil funeral service in memory of journalist
and public activist Mikhail Beketov took place at the
House of Journalists today. Mikhail Beketov was a Russian
journalist who combated against crime and corruption in
the city of Khimki (including defence of Khimki Forest
which had to be cut due the construction of the Moscow–Saint
Petersburg highway). Beketov was attacked and severely
injured by “unidentified persons” in 2008.
As a result his leg and fingers on the left hand were
amputated, he lost speech and became handicapped. The
attackers have not been found. He died in hospital of
complications due to brain damage at the age of 55 on
8 April 2013...

“Mikhail Beketov struggled face to face against
the crime in Khimki, and there are a few people like him,
however, there are a lot of journalists among these few.
This list [of murdered journalists] coincides with the
list of unsolved murders. The investigators know the name
of the person who ordered this crime, but there is no
will so that to bring this person to justice. The tragedy
of our country is that outright criminals are in power
now. Mikhail stood in their way and was murdered. President
Putin should have sent not only his condolences, but had
to keep up his promise and take the case under his control.
What else but death can become a reason for this? May
the memory to a great person Mikhail Beketov live forever,”
said Sergei Mitrokhin...

The Russian participants of the conference
– representatives of the Russian United Democratic
Party YABLOKO – basing on the discussions of the
conference state the following:

Migration represents a natural development
in the globalised world of the 21st century. However,
the threat is represented by systemic problems in the
states – the shadow economy and corruption, lack
of the rule of law, encouragement of nationalistic moods
and violation of human rights, - rather than migration
in itself.

We are certain the problems related to
migration can be resolved in compliance with international
conventions, proceeding from such principles as human
rights, tolerance, respect for the individual, responsibility,
free and fair competition and secularism.

We believe that in the short term Russia
must ratify Convention No 143 of the International Labour
Organisation “On Migrations in Abusive Conditions
and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunity and Treatment
of Migrant Workers” (Geneva, June 24, 1975) and
International Convention “On the Protection of the
Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families”
(New York, December 18, 1990)...

LI Bureau member and Treasurer Robert
Woodthorpe Browne was among the high level speakers on
migration and assimilation at Yabloko (LI Full Member)
Conference on 6th April in Moscow, Russia.

The event was opened by Party Leader Sergey
Mitrokhin and Dr Astrid Thors, European Liberal Democrats
- ALDE Party Vice President and former Migration Minister
in the Finnish Government coming from the Swedish People's
Party (LI Full Member). Professor Grigoriy Alekseyevich
Yavlinskiy addressed the gathering on the subject issues.
He was particularly concerned at the potential knock-on
effect of the proposed US withdrawal from Afghanistan
in 2014. Input was provided by speakers from Swedish,
Estonian, Moldovan, German and British liberals. LI Treasurer,
Robert Woodthorpe Browne, described the UK situation and
added an LI dimension...

The way towards an efficient migration
policy should go through the solution of major Russia’s
problems: separation of business from government, building
of a law-governed and democratic state, said YABLOKO leader
Sergei Mitrokhin at the opening of an international conference
on Migration. The conference, organized by the YABLOKO
party and the ALDE party was held in Moscow on April 6...

Four panel discussions were held within
the framework of the conference: “Migration dynamics
and its political, economic and cultural consequences”,
“Integration of migrants of the first and further
generations: positive and negative experience”,
“Restraining and regulatory mechanisms: different
countries’ experiences and international cooperation”
and “Regulation of migration: the tasks of the state
and the society”. The reports were made by Russian
and foreign experts and politicians...

The YABLOKO party is filing a lawsuit
against the electoral commission members and the policeman
who beat
woman observer in an attempt to snatch a falsified
final protocol of the voting given to her. The incident
occurred late last night at polling station No 02-13 after
the counting of votes in the mayoral election of Anapa.
Alexandra Garkusha, aged 23, an observer from the YABLOKO
party, together with representatives from other parties
and candidates was given a falsified final protocol of
the voting by the commission members. The document had
no legal force and could not form a basis for filing a
case in court.

Alexandra Garkusha drew the attention
of the Commission to this fact and refused to sign for
the receipt of such a protocol. After that, the commission
members expressed their dissatisfaction in extremely disproportionate
aggression and attacked Alexandra trying to snatch the
protocol from her hands. According to the witnesses, Irina
Tropina, Chair of the Electoral Commission, was the most
aggressive attacker encouraging her subordinates to more
violence...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin demanded
from Vladimir Churov, head of the Central Election Commission,
to cancel the results of the mayoral elections in Anapa,
the Krasnodar Territory, held on Sunday. The number of
cases of stuffing of fraudulent ballots does not allow
a genuine expression of voters’ will to be determined.
Information about all the facts of fraud was also sent
to the Central Electoral Commission...

Gross violations began already on Friday,
when road police detained a coach that had to transport
YABLOKO and independent observers from Taganrog to Anapa...

However, on the voting day about 20 cars
with about a hundred of YABLOKO’s observers could
not get to the polling stations by their opening time
8 a.m., due to blocking of the road by the police and
a staged “car accident” on the road Sukko-Anapa...

“All this was done so that our observers
could not get to the polling station to their opening
and so that to do unhampered stuffing of ballots in favour
of Sergei Sergeyev, United Russia candidate and ex police
head whom Governor Tkachyov wanted to see as Anapa Mayor,”
said Sergei Mitrokhin who also visited the “accident
site”.

Voting demonstrated different violations
– from stuffing of ballots to ousting of observers
from polling stations, ban on filming, as well as threats
and physical violence against observers.

An attack was undertaken against Sergei
Mitrokhin. An unidentified person sprayed some green liquid
in the face of YABLOKO’s leader at one of the polling
stations. The liquid got onto his neck and arms. An emergency
doctor wiped the paint from the skin, but advised Sergei
Mitrokhin to go to hospital for further observation, since
"anything could have been mixed into the liquid"...

"Maxim Petlin can be considered a
political prisoner," YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin
commented on the sentence to Maxim Petlin, leader of the
Sverdlovsk Region branch of YABLOKO and deputy of the
Yekaterinburg City Duma.

"We believe that the sentence is based on a case
fabricated by the investigators with gross procedural
violations. Petlin’s activities targeted at exposing
corruption launched his prosecution," said Mitrokhin.

According to Mitrokhin, the court acts "in the interest
of the clans controlling the city and influencing not
only on the city, but also the regional Federal Security
Service departments, the prosecutor's office and the court"...

LI full member Yabloko, became a direct
victim of the rising intolerance in Russia, when its headquarters
in Moscow were attacked by “Orthodox fascists”. This video
demonstrates how they stole and publicly burnt books and
booklets published by the party. Yabloko suspects that
the reason behind this provocation is the fact that the
party has rejected the movement's proposal for building
new Christian Orthodox temples on sites where city gardens
and children's playgrounds are situated. Sergei Mitrokhin,
Yabloko's leader, was outraged, saying: 'We are expecting
a reaction from Vladimir Putin, the People's Front and
the Russian Orthodox Church to the provocations of the
thugs acting on their behalf. In the absence of any response
we will consider this attack as the beginning of “Maoist-style
terror” against the political opposition and we will build
our party strategy in line with these new realities.”
ALDE-PACE President Anne Brasseur condemned the attack
and expressed “sincere hopes that the legal proceedings
that Yabloko has launched will receive appropriate attention
both from the judiciary and the political authorities
of Russia.”

The YABLOKO party believes that the stance
of the State Duma deputies in their
conflict with the MK newspaper violates the Russian
law envisaging that it is the court which takes decisions
on all the disputes relating to publications in the mass
media. The MPs actions not only contravene the procedures
established by law, but are also in conflict with ethical
and moral norms governing public life...

The MPs’ demands to [Pavel Gusev],
Editor-in-Chief of the MK to leave his post of Chairman
of the Moscow Journalists’ Union represents an attempt
to interfere into the spheres of public life that are
completely beyond control of the legislative authority
and are governed by internal corporate standards of professional
communities.

The MPS’ idea to "take away"
MK from Pavel Gusev [who is also the owner of the paper]
is a direct attack on the principle of the inviolability
of private property. Proposing such solutions to disputes
with the media MPs undermine the legal foundations of
the state, which again demonstrates their great incompetence
and catastrophic failure as the legislators...

International conference on migration
problems will take place in Moscow on April 6. The organizers
are the ALDE Party (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
for Europe) and YABLOKO’s Political Committee.

The conference will discuss the following
topics:

- migration dynamics and its political,
economic and cultural consequences;
- integration of migrants of the first and further generations:
positive and negative experience;
- restraining and regulatory mechanisms: different countries’
experiences and international cooperation;
- regulation of migration: the tasks of the state and
the society...

The ALDE Group of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe is deeply concerned with the
news we are receiving from Russia. The attacks perpetrated
against the Yabloko party in Moscow are yet another manifestation
of growing intolerance in the Russian society.

The ALDE condemns the perpetrators of
these attacks which are not simply an act of vandalism,
but also an offence against the freedom of expression.
We sincerely hope that the legal proceedings that you
have launched will receive appropriate attention both
from the judiciary and the political authorities of Russia.
Such acts cannot be tolerated.

I would like to assure you that the Monitoring
Committee will be duly informed about these deplorable
developments...

Orthodox activists from the God's Will
(Bozhya Volya) public movement staged "Orthodox Inquisition
against the YABLOKO party". A group of young men
burst into YABLOKO’s Moscow headquarters on Friday
night, took all the freely available books and booklets
published by the party and burned them in the square by
Novokuznetskaya metro station which is in 3 minutes walk
from YABLOKO’s office. The video entitled "Confiscation
and Burning of Waste Paper by the Party Satanists and
Perverts YABLOKO" was loaded by the young people
on the Internet...

Nikolai Rybakov, member of the Federal
Bureau of the YABLOKO party, has sent to Vladimir Putin
over 11,000 signatures collected in favour of resignation
of Pavel Astakhov, Ombudsman for Children’s Rights
(notoriously known for his support of the “orphans
law” and calls to return all the Russian orphans
adopted abroad back to Russia).

Over 11,000 signatures were collected
in just a week, despite ddos-attacks and Internet bots
attacking the Demokrator.ru website where the signatures
were collected.

"We believe that a man who has cynically
exploited the death of a child [adopted by a US family]
for his political gain, can not hold the post of Children's
Ombudsman," runs Rybakov’s statement.

"I think that the president should not wave away
the appeal of 11,000 citizens. Let us at least make him
think whether his representative Mr. Astakhov has been
acting in an honest and due manner? Our final goal is
still there: Russia should have a decent defender of children,"
Nikolai Rybakov said...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin called
the participants of the Social Manifestation to "change
the authorities at the next elections to the Moscow City
Duma," rather than ask the Mayor of Moscow team for
some "handouts". "We offer the entire civil
society to unite for the Moscow City Duma elections and
agree to provide our party candidates list for this purpose,
and we give half of the list for civil society activists,"
Mitrokhin said at a rally on Sakharov Square...

Mitrokhin also said that the policies of the Moscow authorities
was "authoritarian and incompetent in many areas,
but extremely self-confident and based on the most profound
contempt for the Muscovites". "The Sobyanin’s
team acts as if they came to some kindergarten rather
than Moscow. They know what is better for us, and we should
wait with our mouths open when they bring happiness to
us," Mitrokhin said...

YABLOKO’s Alexei Firsov, head of
Kolchuginsky District, the Vladimir region, was dismissed
from his post because of a conflict with the head of the
district administration Andrei Mitroshkin. The decision
on dismissal was taken at today's meeting of the Council
of People's Deputies of the district by 12 votes "for"
with three "against."

Most of the deputies of the Council refused to consider
the appeal of Governor Nikolai Vinogradov in support of
Firsov. Several dozens of local residents came to support
Alexei Firsov at the Council meeting, but only a few were
allowed into the assembly hall. After voting Firsov thanked
his supporters after which the residents together with
Firsov left the hall. Now Firsov
will work in the Council as an ordinary member. His term
will expire in two years...

The Democratic Petersburg coalition YABLOKO
is member of conducted a raid proving that St.Petersburg
authorities did not allow the Democratic Petersburg to
conduct rallies in the city on fictitious grounds. The
city authorities turned down 20 sites as possible grounds
for the coalition rally. "We have collected evidence
of the officials’ lies and will file a law suit
against them," said the coalition members.

This Sunday, the coalition planned to hold a rally against
the federal law on the "gay propaganda". The
application was submitted to the authorities four times
proposing 20 different locations. However, all the applications
were turned down. The organizers were ready to hold a
rally at any time from 12:00 to 18:00, but the officials
said that all proposed sites were taken by other activities
at that time or some renovation works or repairs were
conducted there. Each time the rally fell under some ban...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin believes
that the attempted murder on Nikolai Nesterenko, Deputy
Ataman of the Anapa City Cossack Community, demonstrates
a qualitatively new stage of confrontation between public
activists and criminal authorities of the Krasnodar Territory.

Attempted murder on Nikolai Nesterenko was committed in
Anapa on February 22. A killer opened fire on the car
of the Cossack. Nesterenko was wounded and his driver
Viktor Zhuk was killed. Nikolay Nesterenko is one of the
leaders of the civil society in Anapa. For many years
he has been fighting against unlawfulness, violation of
citizens’ rights and abuse of power by businessmen and
officials in the city.

"Earlier they have exerted pressure
on public activists in different forms, including their
unlawful conviction on trumped up criminal cases, but
now we can say that, that they begin shooting the most
active public figures who do not let them to do lawlessness,"
said YABLOKO’s leader...

Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev
has said today that he supports the death penalty for
people who have committed serious crimes, "I fear
to bring down the anger of the opponents of the death
penalty on myself, but speaking as an ordinary citizen,
rather than a minister, I would see nothing wrong [in
the death penalty] for such kind of criminals".

It is no good when the high post prevents
the expression of civic feelings. After such a statement
by Mr. Kolokoltsev, he should have been immediately dismissed.
Let him speak out as a citizen not burdened with the weight
of public duties. In any case, the dismissal of Mr. Kolokoltsev
would have been an adequate measure for the authorities
who believe that the purpose of the government is installing
of humanity.

Our ruling system suffers from a serious hereditary contempt
for human life. Here the concept of a "violent crime",
and any crime in general, is like rubber. And just like
civil activities in case of a police state are easily
transferred into crimes, this notion [of a violent crime]
can be transferred into a grave offense. For example,
"foreign agents" [which all the NGOs were pushed
to turn into according the new Russian law] may be considered
traitors and liberal views equated with an ideology targeted
at destruction of the state. And the punishment here will
be execution...

Press Release, February 10, 2013On February 7, the day
of celebration of the "Year of the Olympic Games"
in Sochi, environmentalists from the Kudepasta village
opposing the construction of the Kudepsta thermal electric
power station in the area and YABLOKO activists of the
Sochi branch of YABLOKO conducted an action targeted at
drawing public attention to the environmental problems
in the region and maintaining of healthy environment...

Press Release, February 6, 2013The Sochi branch of the YABLOKO party joined
the campaign for collection of signatures under an appeal
to the federal and regional authorities to preserve the
unique park Southern Cultures, as an asphalt concrete
factory is being built by the park.

The construction site is located within
the buffer zone of the park. A walk among 60 rare trees
enlisted in the Red Book which has become a place interest
in Sochi is used now as a road for trucks. And cutting
of trees has been going on.

In 2012, the Federal Property Management
Agency (Rosimuschestvo) transferred the Southern Cultures
Park to the Ministry of Natural Resources. However, in
the process of transfer it turned out that a 250-meter
walkway connecting the park with the sea shore, was not
part of the park any more and was in the disposal of the
city administration...

ALDE Party President Sir Graham Watson
MEP has expressed the collective concern of European Liberal
Democrats to news of a fresh wave of reprisals against
members of the Russian United Democratic party (Yabloko).

Sergei Mitrokhin, the leader of ALDE member
party Yabloko, has condemned the Federal Security Bureau
in the Sverdlovsk region which has interpreted a recent
Russian law ‘on the counteraction to the extremist
activity’ to obtain a court order permitting Maxim
Petlin, Chair of Yabloko’s Sverdlovsk Region branch
to be placed under surveillance and for all his all telephone
conversations to be monitored. A complaint filed to the
Supreme Court was also dismissed.

ALDE Party President Sir Graham Watson
MEP said: “European Liberal Democrats are increasingly
concerned at the instances of persecution facing members
of open and fully legal political parties. During its
years of existence the Yabloko party has not provided
an occasion for it to be equated to extremist organisations.
It seems the government regards the words ‘opposition’
and ‘extremism’ as synonyms.”

“European Liberal Democrats and
Yabloko call on the European Union to put pressure on
Russia and for the Russian government to immediately stop
such reprisals and to bring those responsible to justice”...

...When officials of such a high rank
as Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin support the idea of returning
the name of Stalin to the city of Volgograd and [Chair
of the Federation Council] Valentina Matviyenko and [head
of the Central Electoral Commission] Vladimir Churov say
that a referendum should be conducted on this issue, they
think least of all of historical justice. The Battle of
Stalingrad is part of the world history, as well as the
heroic defence of besieged Leningrad. However, if we speak
about returning of previous names to these cities, then
we can speak only about their original names, as it was
in case with St. Petersburg. And in case of Volgograd
this should be Tsaritsyn. And without any referendum.

After all, if [head of the Central Electoral
Commission] Vladimir Churov counts the votes, there is
no doubt that 146 per cent will vote for returning Joseph
Stalin’s name to Volgograd. It willl be done in
accordance with the saying attributed to Stalin: "Those
who cast the votes decide nothing, those who count the
votes decide everything".

The YABLOKO party demands to put an end
to the Stalinist sabbath around the anniversary of the
victory at Stalingrad. To make it, as President Putin
have said, so that Russia "would always be victorious",
first we must get rid of the salves complex, which Stalin
instilled in the people and condemn the executioners...

The YABLOKO party notes with concern
a new wave of reprisals against YABLOKO members.

The adoption of the Federal Law "On
the Counteraction to the Extremist Activity" encouraged
the law enforcement activities that are clearly violating
the law: gathering information about the members of the
party and their activities, inviting them for ‘conversations’
[in the police], detentions, searches, seizure of documents
and institution of criminal proceedings.
According to the Federal Security Bureau Department (FSB)
for the Sverdlovsk region, the YABLOKO party is a radical
oppositional structure sharply criticising the state authorities
and negatively assessing broadening of the proxies of
the FSB of Russia. According to FSB, it is a party setting
such a goals as changing Putin-Medvedev’s regime,
elimination of monopoly in politics, economy and media
and the democratisation of the country.

Such a political stance of the party was
laid in the basis of the ruling of the Sverdlovsk Region
Court giving a permission to wiretap all the telephone
conversations conducted by Maxim Petlin, Chair of the
Sverdlovsk Region branch of the Russian United Democratic
Party YABLOKO, control all his postal, telegraph and other
messages and information from technical communication
channels, as well as put him on surveillance.
After the decision of the court, further supported later
by a judge of the Supreme Court in response to a complaint
filed by Maxim Petlin [to the Supreme Court], we can conclude
that a political surveillance regime has been introduced
in respect of the YABLOKO party, as well as other opposition
parties claiming similar goals...

Reacting to the first reading of an LGBT
Rights discrimination bill at the Russian Parliament,
the leader of Yabloko (LI full member), Sergei Mitrokhin,
expressed a concern that the bill in its present version
allows for the authorities to limit the civil rights of
the LGBT community. The law prohibits gay propaganda among
children and it has already been adopted by eight regional
parliaments. 'Legislators proceed from an allegation that
propaganda can change a person's sexual orientation. However,
its adoption will inevitably lead to the deepening of
the split in the society and a growing risk of violent
collisions between different groups. The application of
the law has already demonstrated that there has been a
rise of open clashes between the LGBT and the Orthodox
activists' said Mitrokhin. Liberal International hosted
a public dialogue with Sergei Mitrokhin back in November
where he revealed the undemocratic realities of yet another
discriminatory legislation in Russia...

Press Release, January 29, 2013Boris Vishnevsky, Alexander Kobrinsky and other
deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg
received an official reponse from Governor Georgy Poltavchenko
on the collective parliamentary inquiry about the closure
of St.Petersburg public hospital No 31.

The Presidential Administration plan to
turn this hospital specialising in treating children with
cancer into a medical centre for Russia's top judges arouse
public uproar in Russia. YABLOKO deputies initiated several
inquiries about the public hospital in the St.Peterburg
parliament. The St.Petersburg branch of YABLOKO organised
collection of signatures in its St.Petersburg headquarters
against turning the public hospital into a special medical
centre for the judges. St.Peterburg residents conducted
a special rally in support of the public hospital and
its doctors.

In his letter the Governor stated that
“a decision was taken not to station” the
medical centre for Russia’s top judges in the hospital...

YABLOKO activists held one-person pickets
in front of the State Duma, as the Duma had to consider
two unconstitutional projects: one of them had to simplify
the procedure of requisition of land title from the residents
of the "new Moscow territories" (ex Moscow Region
territories) like was the case in the Olympic Sochi, and
the other would allow regions to replace election of governors
by their appointment...

Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO founder and
member of its Political Committee, led YABLOKO’s
column at the anti-fascist manifestation in Moscow. The
action was held in memory of lawyer Stanislav Markelov
and journalist Anastasia Baburova killed by Neo-Nazis
in the centre of Moscow...

Party activists held a banner "Fascism
will not go" and photographs of the killed Stanislav
Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, Yury Schekochikhin, Farid
Babayev, Anna Politkovskaya and Larissa Yudina.

"Fascism is very dangerous: it emerges
all of a sudden and embraces a vast mass of people. This
is a huge problem in human history and probably one of
the most tragic and terrible pages in the political history
of mankind. In our country fascism may be very dangerous
especially when linked with Stalinism, so even the slightest
movements towards it have to be stopped it. And there
are lots of such movements in life and politics now. Therefore,
the more people will consciously, openly and loudly oppose
fascism, the better it is. And this must be done continuously,"
said Yavlinsky...

Tragic news has come from the Netherlands
– Alexander Dolmatov who fled from Russia to this country
fearing political reprisals committed
a suicide. I express my condolences to Alexander’s
family and express them support in their grief .

Those of us who have lost their loved
ones, know how hurtful it is, as how the world seems to
be alien and how one’s life begins to change as one realizes
that nothing will be as it once was.

Who is to blame? The Netherland authorities that refused
to grant Alexander a political asylum? Those from whom
he escaped in Russia, those who have now unleashed reprisals
in Russia? Or headless leaders of the protest? If a person
is killed in such circumstances, then, in all fairness,
no one can shun the responsibility.

A little man wanted to change his country.
He was forced to flee. The little man was seeking asylum
in another country. But that country calmly turned its
back on him. Anger was breathing behind his back, and
cold breathed into his face. The little man could not
resist. He has gone. But he has remained a Man.

The YABLOKO party will take part in an
anti-fascist manifestation in memory of lawyer Stanislav
Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova. The action
will be held in Moscow on January 19. Party activists
will hold a banner "Fascism will not go". YABLOKO’s
column will be headed by Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO founder
and member of its Political Committee.

"Nationalism is impermissible in Russia and is far
more dangerous than in other countries. Xenophobia and
demonstration of the extreme nationalist views is a time
bomb for such a multinational country as Russia. I am
urging all who oppose fascism in Russia and in the world
to come to the manifestation on January 19 and honor the
memory of the victims of neo-Nazis," said YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin. He himself will be in Kemerovo
on that day, as mayoral elections will be held there in
a week.

The manifestation under the slogans "Moscow is an
antifascist city" and "For Freedom! Against
fascism!" will start at 2 p.m. from the crossing
of Tversloy Boulevard and Tverslaya Street (by the Pushkin
Square) along Nikitsky Boulevard.

The activists and supporters of the YABLOKO party will
gather by the office of the Izvestia paper (Tverskaya
metro station) at 1:30 p.m...

In Moscow the leaders of Yabloko (LI Full
Member), Grigori Yavlinski and Sergei Mitrokhin, led
a march against the Anti-Magnitsky law. The Anti-Magnitsky
law prohibits American citizens from adopting Russian
orphans and is widely considered to be a response to US
reprisals against those responsible for the killing
of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian human rights lawyer.
During the march the crowd held banners and yelled that
‘MPs should fight against corruption, not against
children'. At the rally Sergei Mitrokhin stated: “Our
government has demonstrated that its main goal is to protect
the murderers involved in the Sergei Magnitsky case. The
authorities have put a human shield of orphans around
this scum.” Mitrkohin continued: “But we will
again and again resist this political regime, and again
we will go to the streets and use any other peaceful,
constitutional means so that to remove the regime from
power.' Earlier Yabloko wrote
a letter to the now Russian actor Gérard Depardieu,
to raise attention of the law and the case of Sergei Magnitsky.

The Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg
lacked two votes so that to adopt Grigory Yavlinsky’s
bill on equipping police stations and cars with video
cameras. The initiative was supported by the following
factions: YABLOKO, the Communist Party, the majority of
the Just Russia. Even Vyacheslav Makarov, the Speaker
of the Legislative Assembly and leader of the United Russia
faction, voted for the bill. Thus the bill gathered 24
votes in its favour. However, another 24 deputies present
at the plenary session did not participate in the vote
and did not allow to adopt the law.

Speaking to the MPs, Yavlinsky mentioned
the example of Tatarstan, where the tragedy in one of
the police stations where a detained man died of tortures
made the President of Tatarstan promise to install video
cameras in all the police departments and this promise
has almost been fulfilled. "Last year a young man
died in one of St. Petersburg police stations," said
Yavlinsky...

According to Grigory Yavlinsky, leader
of the YABLOKO faction, adoption of the draft law on rallies
with the restrictions it envisaged could lead only to
a sharp increase in the number of unauthorized actions
and, consequently, increase of tension in St. Petersburg.

"It will not restoration of order,
but violation of order," said Grigory Yavlinsky.

According to the BaltInfo agency, this morning, the Governor's
bill lacked only one vote so that to be included into
the agenda of the Legislative Assembly. MPs from YABLOKO,
the Communist Party and Just Russia voted against it".

The bill proposed a ban on rallies, meetings
and other events on Nevsky Prospekt, the St. Isaac's and
the Palace Squares, and also contained many other prohibitions
and restrictions...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin expressed
his satisfaction with the call of Moscow Mayor Sergei
Sobyanin to the deputies of the Moscow City Duma to preserve
the institute of public hearings on different construction
and development projects in Moscow. Earlier, the Public
Advisory Council of Political Parties under the Moscow
City Duma severely criticized the amendments introduces
by the ruling United Russia and targeted at cancelling
of public hearings.

Mitrokhin also noted that the "attempt
to cancel public hearings has clearly revealed the utter
incompetence of the Moscow City Duma which is ready to
obey any orders from the Moscow government, no matter
how senseless and harmful for the Muscovites it could
be"...

The YABLOKO party will support the March
against the “Anti-Magnitsky law” which will
take place in Moscow on Sunday, January 13. Activists
will gather by the Izvestia paper office (by Tverskaya
metro station) at 13:30. The march along boulevards to
Sakharov Prospect will begin at 14:00. The action got
a permission from the Moscow authorities.

..."We oppose the barbaric so-called
Dima Yakovlev law. We believe that with this law represents
a kind of a human shield of orphans put by the government
around its corrupt officials. That is, our government
has virtually told the world: we will protect our corrupt
officials so that the whole world will tremble in terror,"
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin said to journalists. According
to Mitrokhin, the Anti-Magnitsky law shows that our government
is cannibalistic in nature, therefore all the forces of
our society that are in favor of a civilized development
must unite so that to say 'no' to the cannibalistic state".

He also stressed that it was important that there were
no Nazis or leftists among the organizers of the March...

After having been granted a Russian passport
by President Vladimir Putin, French actor Gerard Depardieu
last week visited the Russian federal Republic of Mordovia.
Vladimir Gridin, the Chairman of the Mordovia branch of
Yabloko (LI Full Member) has written a
public letter to Depardieu, in which he points the
attention of the actor to stringent issues in Russia today.
Amongst the issues mentioned by Gridin are electoral fraud
and the illegal expropriation of houses without compensation
in the Russian republic. Gridin also states Depardieu
is used to divert public attention away from the Anti-Magnitsky
law, which prohibits Americans from adopting Russian orphans
in response to reprisals by the United States against
those responsible for the
murder of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. In the
World Today Resolution, adopted at the 58th Congress
in Abidjan, Liberal International 'expressed its extreme
concern with the strengthening of Vladimir Putin's authoritarian
regime', and called on the Council of Europe 'to respond
adequately to Russia's breach of its obligations as member
of the Council'.

Alexander Kobrinsky, deputy of the Legislative
Assembly of St. Petersburg from the YABLOKO faction, sent
a letter to St.Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko
in connection with dispersing of the "Snow Battle"
flash mob organised by young people in Marsovo Polye (Champ
de Mars), St.Petersburg.

St.Petersburg police dispersed several
hundreds of young people who gathered for a traditional
snowball fights at Marsovo Polye on January 6. Several
people were detained by police.

In his letter YABLOKO’s MP asked
the Governor to give an answer whether he would go on
with "tightening of the screws" and whether
the principle "more than three people make a crowd"
would become fundamental for St.Petersburg dwellers.

Alexander Kobrinsky urged the Governor
to give an assessment to the actions of the police and
demand from the heads of the St. Petersburg interior to
change their attitude to the city residents who gathered
to play snowballs.

"Such harmless actions are held without
any problems and permissions all over Europe," Kobrinsky
wrote. In confirmation of his words Kobrinsky set the
Governor a reproduction painting by Vasily Surikov "Taking
a Snow Town" (1891), depicting ancient Russian fun
game, noting that the same game was banned by St.Petersburg
police three days ago...

The YABLOKO party will support the March
against the “Anti-Magnitsky law” which will
take place in Moscow on Sunday, January 13.

YABLOKO has consistently opposed the so-called
Dima Yakovlev law prohibiting Americans to adopt Russian
children. YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin called this
law "profoundly anti-human." "Adopting
the Anti-Magnitsky law all the branches of power demonstrated
their willingness to protect their corrupt officials in
such a way that the whole world was left horrified,"
Mitrokhin said.

YABLOKO’s MPs in the Legislative
Assemblies of St. Petersburg and the Pskov Region opposed
the bill, but were not supported by the parliamentary
majority. Activists from the Youth Yabloko conducted a
series of one person pickets by the Federation Council
on the day the senators had to examine the law. The slogan
of the action was "Children are frozen in the Cold
War". Four party members were detained by police
and now they face large fines or community service works...

In connection with your plans to settle in Mordovia, let
me ask you a few questions as so to say your new compatriot.

1. A few days ago you visited Mordovia and, as you put
it, you were stunned by the hospitality shown to you there.
Vladimir Volkov, President of the Republic of Mordovia,
offered you in a handsome gesture an apartment or a plot
of land under a house. The generosity of the head of the
region struck many people in the republic, especially
the residents of Tambovskaya street in Saransk...

The police released Artur Babayev, the
leader of the Dagestan branch of YABLOKO, who had been
previously detained in Makhachkala. The politician stated
that the press service of the republican Interior Ministry
lied that he had allegedly tried to break through the
cordons into the building. Allegedly the building was
cordoned as explosives had been found in the roof...

A police officer in the police department
took Babayev’s fingerprints and photographed him
allegedly "on suspicion of the previously committed
crimes". In his report the policeman who brought
Babayev to the police department wrote an obvious lie
that the politician had tried to “break the cordon".
Later this lie was broadcasted by the Interior Ministry.

Later Babayev was released, but the police
refused to give him any documents proving the fact of
his detention.

YABLOKO is considering the possibility
to appeal against the police actions, as the law envisaged
that only those "suspected of committing a crime,
accused of a crime, convicted of a crime or subject to
administrative arrest" are subjects to mandatory
fingerprinting.

Artur Babyev, leader of the Dagestan branch
of YABLOKO, is detained in Makhachkala. The party office
is surrounded by police cordons.

About an hour ago Babayev came to the
party office at Yusupova, 53. The building was surrounded
by police. When Babayev tried to clarify the reasons of
police cordons, one of police officials told to detain
him and escort him to the Leninsky police department of
Makhachkala...

Grigory Yavlinsky’s address
to the deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg,
December 26, 2012

The Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg
did not put into the agenda the address to the Federation
Council calling the latter to reject the so-called Dima
Yakovlev law (the "orphans law"). The address
was initiated by ten members of the Legislative Assembly,
including the YABLOKO faction. An appeal from Grigory
Yavlinsky, leader of the YABLOKO faction, was distributed
among deputies before the plenary session. Here comes
the complete text of the appeal...

Statement by YABLOKO leader Sergei
Mitrokhin in connection with dismissal of Sergei Baburin,
Rector of the Russian University for Trade and Economy
(RGTEU), December
26, 2012.

At present we can observe an attack against
the remnants of independence of the Russian university
education. Sergei Baburin, Rector of RGTEU, was dismissed
from his post by the order of the Ministry of Education
on December 24. This decision is an act of political violence
by the Ministry of Education against the rector, who demanded
from the Ministry to explain why and under what criteria
his university had been listed as "inefficient"
and had had to be merged with another university.
I believe that the dismissal of Sergei Baburin, Rector
of RGTEU, is unlawful and only aggravates the situation
around the merger of universities. It
is surprising that federal television channels are employed
in the fight against the students and the former rector
RGTEU. The pieces of news broadcasted by TV diminish the
role and significance of Sergei Baburin as an academic...

Activists of the Youth
YABLOKO protesting this morning by the Federation Council
against the so-called Dima Yakovlev law (“the orphans
law”) are facing administrative fines amounting
to RUR 30,000 (approximately USD 1,000) and compulsory
community service works. Cases of administrative violations
are filed against four activists.

A series of pickets against the approval
by the Federation Council of the law prohibiting American
families to adopt children from Russia started an hour
before the plenary session of the Federation Council.
In order not to violate the law, as only one-person pickets
can be conducted without getting a prior permission from
the authorities, the protesters planned to picket in turn
changing each other every ten minutes and passing the
banners "Senators, fight against corruption, not
orphans" and "Children freeze in the cold war”
from hand to hand...

"Vote for anyone but the [ruling]
United Russia! ", this is how Alexei Navalny tried
to persuade people on the threashold of the State Duma
elections [in December 2011]. Such a variant of voting
was supported then by Eunegia Chirikova, Grigory Golosov,
Andrei Buzin, Artemiy Troitsky, Grigory Chkhartishvili
[Boris Akunin] and others.

A large part of the protest electorate
followed that advice, thus the Just Russia and the Communist
party candidates got into the Duma (whereas their results
were much higher than they had expected). However, YABLOKO
did not get into the Duma, as many people chose to vote
for the Just Russia so that “not to vote in vain”.
And another part of those who could have supported the
democratic opposition and get it into the Duma spoiled
their ballots tempted by persuasions by Boris Nemtsov,
Vladimir Ryzhkov, Viktor Shenderovich, Dmitry Bykov, Andrei
Piontkovsky and others to choose the “off with all
of you” strategy. Which, as I recall, its authors
proudly called "a real threat to the government"
and "the only correct strategy leading to a change
of government and restoring of fair elections"...
A year has passed, and that the Duma adopts the "law
of scoundrels" [i.e. the law on orphans]. [The ruling]
United Russia and Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s faction
and the communists and the Just Russia factions vote in
unison on a single impulse: 420 of 450 votes "for"
the law is almost an unprecedented result for parliament.
Everything is clear with the Zhirinovsky’s faction
and the communists. But some people vested hopes in the
[socialist] Just Russia. But how did the latter vote?..

St.Petersburg, Dec. 24, RIA Novosti. Alexander
Shishlov, Human Rights Commissioner in St. Petersburg,
considers the adoption of amendments to the draft law
"On measures against persons involved in violations
of fundamental human rights and freedoms, rights and freedoms
of citizens of the Russian Federation" prohibiting
the adoption of Russian orphans by U.S. citizens, immoral...

"The adoption of the amendments prohibiting
adoptions of orphaned Russian children by U.S. citizens
seems to me a very cynical act. The authors of the amendments
virtually propose to apply "sanctions" not against
the individuals involved in human rights violations (which,
as follows from its title the draft law targets at), but
against Russian children who can not find a family in
Russia at present, " said Shishlov...

On December 20, representatives of non-parliamentary
parties spoke to the deputies of the Krasnoyarsk Region
Legislative Assembly. Oksana Demchenko, Chair of the Krasnoyarsk
regional branch of YABLOKO, urged the lawmakers to oblige
the owners of the Boguchanskaya Hydroelectric Power Station
to evaluate and compensate for the damage caused to the
environment and local people, as well as conduct an environmental
assessment of their further development of the Lower Angara
River area.

According to Demchenko, the creation of powerful new industries
in the area (an aluminum plant, a timber complex and wood-chemical
and pulp and paper mills) is impossible without a strategic
environmental assessment, otherwise the present practices
of development of the territories will inevitably lead
to an imbalance between the industrial development and
the environment. "The lack of a strategic environmental
assessment of the investment projects does not allow to
create a model of a rational use of natural resources
in the region," she said in her speech. Oksana Demchenko
also recalled that six weeks ago, the federal Political
Council of the YABLOKO party sent a special message to
the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk region, noting
disturbing examples of negligence of the standards of
social and environmental responsibility in the Lower Angara
area...

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses a categorical protest against the prosecution
of Suren Gazaryan and putting him on the federal wanted
list. Suren Gazaryan is a well-known environmentalist,
an organizer of public actions against outrageous environmental
violations in the Krasnodar region, the initiator of the
resonance investigations of unlawful construction of permanent
facilities in the natural reserves, Gazaryan plays an
important role in the socio-political life of the region
and criminal prosecution of Gazaryan represents nothing
but a revenge of the authorities to him for his civil
and political activity...

Considering the prosecution of Suren Gazaryan
politically motivated, the YABLOKO party demands from
Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee
of Russia, to check the actions of his subordinates in
the Krasnodar region who have been fabricating the second
criminal case against Suren Gazaryan on absolutely fictitious
grounds.

YABLOKO calls on all opposition forces,
all the honest people to switch into the campaign in defence
of Suren Gazaryan. Let us not allow the authorities to
imprison him!

The YABLOKO party invited experts to discuss
migration problems in Russia. Opening the round table,
Boris Misnik, Coordinator of YABLOKO’s Political
Committee, outlined the key issues for the discussion,
including control over residence and registration, their
legal basis, living conditions in the country of residence,
everyday xenophobia and others.

Galina Mikhalyova, Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political
Committee, stressed that YABLOKO realized the complexity
of the migration problems.

"We have invited experts so that
they would help us to develop a clear position on this
issue. Because a social-liberal political party offering
an alternative to the government’s policy, can not
avoid this complex problem," she said...

The issue on the [Russian Duma] ban on
adoptions of [Russian] orphans by Americans is important.
I am very sorry for the children.

It is a significant law. Not only it gives
another proof of stupidity and the resulting cruelty,
but also demonstrates the Bolshevik and Stalinist nature
of the Russian political system. A kind of capitalism
with a Stalin's face.

Bolsheviks and Stalinists always take
a "revenge" on their enemy in such a way that
it brings a huge and often irreparable damage to the citizens
of Russia, in this case to desolate and helpless children,
whom they regard as their property, as serfs, as inanimate
objects...

The sanctions against Russian orphans
imposed by the State Duma are a disgusting, cruel, unfair
and cowardly decision adopted in a unanimous pseudo-patriotic
frenzy...

The YABLOKO party expresses its resolute
protest against the intention of the State Duma to adopt
an amendment into the controversial draft law "On
measures against persons involved in the violation of
the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation"
(the so-called "Dima Yakovlev Law") as a “response”
by the Russian authorities to the Magnitsky Act adopted
in the US. The amendment bans the adoption of Russian
children by US citizens

We do not think that the adoption of the
Magnitsky Act was right, as the "punishment"
in the form of a refuse to issue visas is not based on
a court decision. Actually in dealing with this foreign
policy issue the US abolished a juridical approach they
are guided in the solution of domestic issues.

However, the "response" of the
Russian Duma turned out to be not even more unlawful,
but simply disgusting. The victims of legal nihilism of
the Russian lawmakers are not Americans (who will simply
adopt children in other countries), but the most vulnerable
category of the Russian citizens – the orphans...

On December 19, 2012, the State Duma is
going to pass a bill targeted against a part of our society,
namely, people belonging to the LGBT community (Lesbian
- Gay - Bisexual - Transgender) under the pretext of taking
care of children who for some reason should not know about
people with other view points and habits.

In the West and other parts of the world
the states have ceased to look under their citizens’
blankets prescribing how and with whom they should have
sex. Moreover, many countries have legalised gay marriages,
and even adoption of children by such couples.

This shameful law against different people
disseminating hatred and ousting part of our compatriots
into ghettos is virtually accusing them of inferiority.
The adoption of such a law means returning of the Soviet
law on "sodomy" envisaging criminal prosecution
or even refers to the Nazis’ "final solution
of the problem" of homosexuality in gas cameras...

The Supreme Court of the RF adopted a
resolution announcing wiretapping of any opposition member
absolutely lawful.

The resolution was adopted on the Maxim
Petlin case. The highest court recognised the sanction
of the court on listening to Petlin’s telephone
conversations and spying on him lawful, as he is member
of the YABLOKO party.

The decision of the Supreme Court, which
will clearly form a precedent for the entire court system
was based only on Petlin’s participation in the
work of the YABLOKO party and, therefore, can be applied
to any member of our or any other opposition party.

The court ruled out that participation in the activities
of a political party held "some evidence of crime
as envisaged by Article 280 of the Criminal Code [namely]
"public calls for extremist activities".

Indeed, the YABLOKO party, as was indicated
by the court, was aiming at “changing the Putin-Medvedev
regime” organizing protest actions, and, which is
the worst thing, giving a negative assessment to the "broadening
of the proxies of the Federal Security Service of Russia”...

Statement by the Social Democratic
Faction of the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO,
December 12, 2012.

We are outraged by the statement made
by Maxim Mishchenko, leader of the [pro-Kremlin] Young
Russia movement, on the need to reduce budget expenditure
on treatment of cancer patients. The former MP from the
United Russia faction intends to introduce his criminal
initiative at the hearings of the Public Chamber devoted
to paid medical services, after which he intends to send
the draft to the Ministry of Healthcare.

We regard the initiative proposed by the
leader of United Russia's youth organisation as an open
manifestation of fascism and violation of the Constitution
of the Russian Federation guaranteeing all citizens the
right to life and free health care.

We demand that the ruling party stop its
mockery of Russia’s people and the attack on the
right of citizens to high-quality free education and free
health care, as well as curbing of the social responsibilities
of the state taking place against the background of an
unprecedented in Russia's history growth of oil and gas
revenues...

On Saturday, December 1, a rally in support
of hundreds of deceived farmers organised by the YABLOKO
party will take place in Mozhaisk, the Moscow region.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin will participate in the
action.
In 1992, 827 workers of the farms Pavlishchevo and Klementevo
received documents confirming their right of collective
share on land. Each of the workers received 6.64 hectares
of land.
In 2001, the companies management persuaded about 600
farmers (mainly elderly people) to give their documents
to the Registration Chamber allegedly for mandatory registration
of their rights. According to the victims, the deputy
head of the rural settlement who had the right to notarize
documents forged the powers of attorney and transferred
the land to the companies without any pay to the farmers.
Head of the Registration Chamber was bribed and signed
the deal...

On Saturday activists of the YABLOKO held
a picket in support of YABLOKO’s Suren Gazoryan
facing several years of imprisonment for standing up against
Governor Tkachyov’s unlawful seizure of public lands
in the Black Sea Coast.

About 15 people participated in the picket
in Kazan. Nailya Biktimirova, representating of the Social-Ecological
Union, said that this summer she met with Gazaryan in
Moscow at the award ceremony of the Presidential Council
for Civil Society Development and Human Rights. At that
time Gazoryan was sentenced to three years of probation
for graffiti and “damaging” of the fence around
Governor’s cottage built on public land. However,
a new case against Gazaryan may lead to his imprisonment,
as accordikng to the investigators, YABLOKO’s activist
had allegedly threatened to kill the three guards of the
so-called Putin’s Palace.

"I think any environmental activist
may be imprisoned now, as the authorities have been trying
to defend the territory they did not have any right to
sale and develop,” said Naila Biktimirova...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin said that
not only officials from district and city governments,
but also officials from the Krasnodar Territory Administration
and Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachyov
much be charged with negligence in the case of a flood
in Krymsk resulting in many victims.

“I am satisfied with the fact that a charge was
brought against the local authorities, but this is not
enough. We have convincingly shown that the regional authorities
have failed to implement their duties, however, none of
the officials incurred the responsibility. Why Governor
Tkachyov guilty of criminal negligence should remain in
his post for another five years endangering the population
of his territory? “ Mitrokhin said...

The Russian United
Democratic Party YABLOKO demands investigation of the
events that led to the riot in the Penal Colony ? 6 in
the city of Kopeysk, the Chelyabinsk region, on November
24, and unjustified cruelty in suppressing of the riot
and use of riot police (OMON) for dispersing prisoners’
relatives and human rights activists who gathered by the
prison.

So far, the Russian society has not received
any coherent explanation from the prison administration
and the heads of the Federal Service for Execution of
Punishment. However, there is no doubt that such a large-scale
confrontation between prisoners and the prison administration
can not occur all of a sudden. Unfortunately, Penal Colony
No 6 has been notoriously "famous" for a series
of scandals involving the deaths and tortures of prisoners.
Information coming from the administration and the Federal
Service for Execution and Punishment of "an unlawful
demand of 250 prisoners on weakening of the regime"
does not look credible. We see the prisoners’ calls
for help, excessive use of force by the riot police against
prisoners’ relatives and human rights activists...

Yugeny Vitishko, a renowned environmentalist
and civil rights activist, member of the Regional Council
of the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO and member of the North
Caucasus Environmental Watch, is running for the post
of head of the Krymsk District in South Russia (the district
which suffered from a large flood this summer) from the
YABLOKO party. The elections will be held on December
9.
This summer, Vitishko was sentenced due to fraudulent
evidence to three years probation for the "damage
to the fence" around the Governor Tkachyov’s
cottage. The lands under the cottage and the fensed beach
nearby still registered as public are virtually in the
Governor’s property. Now new charges are invented
so that to withdraw a strong candidate from the election
campaign. The authorities threaten to replace a suspended
sentence by a real imprisonment...

Suren Ghazaryan, PhD, is a speleologist
and biologist studying bats in the Institute of Ecology
of Mountain Territories of the Kabardino-Balkar Research
Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the
Northern Caucasus Environmental Watch non-governmental
prganisation. His and Yegeny Vitishko’s participation
in the public campaign against the seizure of forest and
coastline at the Black Sea (near the village of Dzhubga)
by Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachyo
resulted in criminal prosecution against Ghazaryan and
Vitishko and three years of a suspended sentence for the
"damage to property" ("This is our forest",
"Alexander is a thief!" was written on the fence
around the Governor’s cottage).

However, earlier environmentalists had
got several answers from the Public Prosecutor’s
Office where the latter had been denying the existence
of any fence around the Governor’s cottage located
at unlawfully seized public lands...

Sergei Mitorkhin's lecture
in the British Parliment. London,
November 12, 2012

...Soon it will turn a year since the
beginning of mass protest rallies in Russia. For many
people these rallies meant hopes for rapid democratic
changes. Frankly speaking, I have never shared such an
optimistic point of view.

For me, it was clear that Vladimir Putin
would consider the awakening of the society as disorders
and side-affects of the "liberalization" carried
out by ex President Dmitry Medvedev. And this meant that
Putin’s only possible response to the mass protests could
be "tightening the screws" or, in other words,
increase of reprisals.

This is how Vladimir Putin’s regime tries
to avoid the fate of his Middle Eastern counterparts.
Obviously, Putin has been very concerned of the fates
of his colleagues from the Arab world, and this makes
him take up preventive measures against the Arab Spring
scenario in Russia...

In his speech in the Houses of Parliament
in London YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin stated that
policies of the Russian government towards an anti-European
way of development had been changing the situation in
the country. In his speech Mitrokhin touched upon such
topics as political reprisals, toughening of the laws,
clericalisation of the state and the problems of the opposition.

“A conflict with the West has become more apparent
and moreover demonstrative. Cultivation of xenophobia
and hostility to the outside world allows the regime to
feel more confident when rejecting accusations of election
fraud, destruction of an independent judiciary, and so
on,” Mitrokhin stressed.

Sergei Mitrokhin’s briefing was
held on the initiative of Lord John Alderdice. The meeting
was hosted Simon Hughes MP, Deputy Leader of LibDems,
and Lord Alderdice, immediate past LI President. British
MPs from the Liberal Democratic Party and their supporters
and students from the London School of Economics and other
British Universities participated in the meeting...

Prominent YABLOKO’s activists Natalia
Yevdokimova and Andrei Babushkin have been appointed members
of the Presidential Council for Civil Society Institutions
and Human Rights. They were recommended to the Human Rights
Council basing on the results of an Internet voting. Presidential
decree on the appointment of new Council members has been
signed and published today.

"The Council has been an effective mechanism, it
has revealed to the public many violations of civil rights,"
said Andrei Babushkin, Chair of the "Committee for
Civil Rights" and YABLOKO Bureau member.

"I am convinced that such a large number of human
rights activists in this body, its openness to the public,
and, I hope, President's attention to this body can help
in work of protection of human rights. The Council I will
do the same thing [I have been engaged with for many years]
- development of the law on public control [over the governments]
and spread of the institute of amending judicial errors.
We will seek so that the removal of judicial errors would
became a part of the Criminal Administrative Code and
subordinate legislation and regulations," noted Babushkin.

"Hopefully, it will be easier to work for us because
we feel a friend’s shoulder,” says Natalia
Yevdokimova, Executive Secretary of the Human Rights Council
of St. Petersburg and YABLOKO member. “The Council
joins together many well-known human rights activists,
and for us it is an opportunity to cooperate with them
and discuss things with experienced people"...

Being a Liberal in Russia
is a risky vocation, as putting one’s head above
the parapet politically is an invitation to harrassment,
arrest, criminal proceedings and heafty fines or imprisonment.
High profile anti-establishment activists such as Pussy
Riot get lots of foreign media attention and noises of
sympathy from the outside world, of course, but even in
their case that did not stop two of their number being
sentenced to two years detention each in different gulags.
Alas, as the leader of Russia’s Liberal Party Yabloko,
Sergei Mitrokhin, detailed in a speech at Westminster
this lunchtime, the long arm of President Putin’s
law is getting firmer. He highlighted three aspects of
particular concern regarding the current political situation
in Russia and the crackdown against Liberal forces...

The Congress of the Alliance of Liberals
and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) adopted an urgency resolution
“On reprisals against YABLOKO activists and dissenters
in Russia”.

The resolution was submitted by YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin who was delegate of the Congress.

ALDE (the earlier name ELDR) joins together
all the European liberal and democratic parties. The Russian
United Democratic Party YABLOKO has been full member of
ALDE since 2006. The ALDE Congress is held in Dublin,
Ireland, on November 8-10, 2012.
The resolution marks a new wave of reprisals in Russia
against opposition activists and all dissenters against
the present government’s policies against the backdrop
of the curb on human rights and freedoms; suppression
of the freedom of speech; use of the law enforcement and
the judiciary as a tool for reprisals”.
The ALDE Congress called on the ALDE groups to raise the
issue in the European Parliament and the Council of Europe
and draw the attention of the Russian government to the
inadmissibility of persecutions for criticism...

- a new wave of reprisals in Russia against
opposition activists and all dissenters against the present
government’s policies against the backdrop of the
curb on human rights and freedoms; suppression of the
freedom of speech; use of the law enforcement and the
judiciary as a tool for reprisals;

- persecution against YABLOKO activists
and candidates to the regional parliament Suren Gazaryan
and Yenegy Vitishko, who have been charged with a criminal
offence that could lead to their imprisonment for criticising
Krasnodar Region Governor Alexander Tkachev for his unlawful
seizure of public lands and their fight for human rights
and environmental safety in the region

Calls

- On the ALDE groups to raise the issue
in the European Parliament and the Council of Europe and
draw the attention of the Russian government to the inadmissibility
of persecutions for criticism, in violation of Russia’s
obligations relating to its membership of the Council
of Europe and in direct contrast with the statements of
the Russian authorities on adherence to democratic values;

- On the Russian government to stop the
reprisals against Gazaryan and Vitishko and revoke the
unlawful court decisions against them and punish those
guilty of giving false evidence and prosecutions.

The Russian state still uses Joseph Stalin’s
political methods, said YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin
at the Returning of the Names action which is annually
held in the centre of Moscow by the Solovetsky Stone monument.
People commemorate the victims of the Great Terror and
read out loud the names of the people shot during those
years.

"The roots of Stalinism have not been removed from
our society and our state. Commemorating the victims of
the terror we must also recognize our responsibility so
that this will never happen again," Mitrokhin said
after reading out loud the names of the people shot in
1937 – 1938...

Sergei Mitrokhin demands from Alexander
Bastrykin, head of the Investigation Committee, to file
a criminal case on the abduction and tortures of Leonid
Razvozzhayev, Assistant of oppositional Duma MP Ilya Ponomaryov.
(Ed. Leonid Razvozhayaev together with Sergei Udaltsov
were accused of preparing a coup d’etat in Russia
with the help of Georgian money after a notorious film
The Anatomy of Protest-2 picturing all the opposition
figures as criminals). Mitrokhin insists that the criminal
case should be opened in accordance with three articles
of the Criminal Code “abduction” (Article
126), “threat of murder or grievous bodily harm”
(Article 119) and “compulsion of evidence”
(Article 302).

Mitrokhin also applied to Sergei Kudneyev,
Public Prosecutor of Moscow, demanding to immediately
explain the circumstances of the detention of Leonid Razvozzhayev
and how it was announced Rozvozzhayaev had “voluntarily
admitted his guilt and surrendered”...

...Charges may be brought now against
any person or organisation whose activities seem dangerous
for the secret services. Punishment envisaged by the draft
law for links with an international non-governmental organisation,
rendering of “financial, material, technical, consultative
or other assistance” spread of information in the Internet
which can later be recognized as a state secret by the
intelligence, toughening of punishment for violations
take us back into the period of mass reprisals and resemble
Stalin's methods of dealing with political opponents and
lead to the formation of a new "iron curtain."

Any person - an ordinary public activist
or a federal level official who may arise discontent –
may get under the sanctions of the new law. Russian special
services are interested in obtaining a legal basis for
the arrests of the dissenting...

Searches in the apartments of Sergei Udaltsov
and his parents deepen the political crisis in the country
and reinforce the split between the state and the society.

The campaign of reprisals against Sergei Udaltsov and
other opposition activists resembles as of its scenario
Stalin's trials against "enemies of the people".
Starting with a public denunciation as a very questionable
film "Anatomy of a Protest-2" [depicting opposition
activists as spies or bought up puppets] further under
the screams of lickspittles and “denunciators”
from the United Russia party this campaign has transferred
into the phase of direct reprisals with the prospects
of many years of camp life [for Udaltsov].

Searches in the apartment of a political
opponent to the government in view of his political activities
represents a repressive act of political revenge.

Not sharing Sergei Udaltsov’s political views, I
think it unacceptable to use such methods for "neutralisation"
against any representative of the political opposition.

The YABLOKO party demands to immediately stop this openly
ordered campaign by the investigators against Sergei Udaltsov,
Nicholai Kavkazsky and other people arrested in accordance
with the so-called "Bolotnaya Square protesters case"...

Olga Zatomskaya, Judge of a Moscow court
of the first instance, imposed a RUR 2,000 fine of YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin for his talking to journalists
and bloggers during the protest action of June 6. The
court's decision bases on a false testimony of witnesses
and police. The party intends to appeal against this decision...

On August 31, on the first day of submitting
an application in accordance with the law, the Organisational
Committee "Democratic Petersburg" applied for
conducting of the "March of Millions" on September
15. The public action will consist of a demonstration
(a march) and a rally. The march will begin at 1 p.m.,
a rally will be held at 2 p.m. The exact route of the
procession and a place for the rally will be announced
later after obtaining an approval from the city administration.

The demands and slogans of the "March
of Millions" in St. Petersburg will be as follows:
change of the present political regime, fair elections,
protection of human rights, provision of real social equality
and protection of historical part of the city. The organizers
expect that the number of participants in the march will
amount to about five thousand people.

The Organisational Committee "Democratic Petersburg"
was created on August 28 and comprises representatives
from political parties, social, human rights and political
organisations, YABLOKO, the Republican Party of Russia
– PARNAS, the Christian Democrats, the Libertarian Party,
the Russian Socialist Movement, the People's Labour Union
of Russian Solidarists, the Russian Social Democratic
Union of the Youth, Student Action, Vikhod (Exit), the
LGBT Initiative, the Women Voters League, Youth Human
Rights Group and the Alliance of Heterosexuals for the
Equality for LGBT...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin said that
measures scheduled by the regional administration for
prevention of floods in the Krasnodar Territory are insufficient.
Yesterday Governor Alexander Tkachyov announced that regional
administration was going to allot 3 billion rubles for
cleaning and deepening of rivers’ beds, however,
he did not say anything about creation of a system which
would alert the population in case of a coming flood...

...YABLOKO has been demanding resignation
of Alexander Tkachyov who bears full responsibility for
the consequences of the tragic July floods leading to
numerous human victims. The party is seeking a thorough
investigation into the Governor's actions.

Russian authorities have launched a new
criminal probe against environmental activist Suren Gazaryan
after he led an inspection of a public shore near what
we believe is President Vladimir Putin's Black Sea dacha
for violations. The proceedings are an attempt to stop
the activist's efforts to expose illegal palaces built
on public funds or land and cutting off access to a public
shore...

Suren Gazaryan is required by police to
attend a session of questioning regarding the alleged
death threat on September 4. He can be kept in custody
before trial which has turned into a common practice for
persecution of Russian opposition activists.

On Monday the working group of the Human
Right Council began examination of CVs of new candidates
to the Council.

Renowned human rights activists Valery
Borschyov, member of YABLOKO’s Political Committee,
and Andrei Babushkin, member of YABLOKO Bureau, were among
the first persons whose CVs were approved and thus will
participate in the Internet consultation...

The working group will examine about 190
CVs of the candidates. The CVs were forwarded from non-profit
organisations, Russian Ombudsman and regional ombudsmen.

According to the presidential decree of
2011, the Council will comprise 40 members.

On August 25, YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin
held a series of meetings with the residents of Krymsk
area which suffered a terrible
flood in July.

The meetings had to identify the cases
of non-fulfillment by the authorities of their obligations
to the residents who lost their property in the flood.
People reported red tape in getting
compensation for lost property and money for repairs,
continuous “losing” by officials of their
documents submitted in order to get a compensation and
small size of compensations insufficient for repairs.
The residents resented such bureaucratic formalism when
people were denied compensation...

The police tried to debar Mitrokhin from
meeting the residents. Also several cars with representatives
of local administration followed YABLOKO leader at the
meetings. At the end Mitrokhin managed to make the local
officials cooperate in the solution of the problems of
the Krymsk residents.

Yavlinsky
to Court: Cancel the verdict on Pussy Riot
LI News Bulletin, Issue 297, August 23, 2012Commenting on the two year sentence given
to the Russian Pussy Riot punk group, LI 2004 Prize for
Freedom laureate and former leader of Yabloko (LI Full
Member), Grigory Yavlinsky said: “The political
protest by Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and
Ekaterina Samutsevich has in fact very serious grounds.
It is a protest against election fraud conducted to usurp
power, and against censorship in the media, the lies and
corruption, hypocrisy and injustice. The long term of
imprisonment of the girls, forcing the atmosphere of unforgiveness
and vengeance, does much more harm to the Russian society
than their outrage in the temple.” Yabloko has condemned
the controversial trial of the three members of the Russian
band since their arrest on charges of hooliganism and
religious hostility after performing a protest song against
President Vladimir Putin at Moscow's main Cathedral. Yavlinsky
expressed hope that the Russian High Court will cancel
the wrong verdict and set the girls free as this will
correspond both to the interests of the country and the
goals of the Church.

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin applied
to Anatoly Yakunin, head of the Moscow interior, demanding
to conduct official investigation of the lawfulness of
policemen’s actions during detention of Garry Kasparov,
Russian opposition figure and ex World Chess Champion,
by Khamovnichesky court during the Pussy Riot trial. In
his appeal Mitrokhin refers to the documentary
‘The Term’.

The authors of the documentary filmed
the detention of the ex World Chess Champion. "Obviously,
the police had no reasons to arrest Garry Kasparov,"
Mitrokhin wrote in the letter. Indeed, during a few seconds
before his arrest Garry Kasparov was talking to reporters
and was not breaking the law. Garry
Kasparov was detained by Khamovnichesky in Moscow on August17
during the hearing of the court verdict on the controversial
action by punk band Pussy Riot at the Christ the Savior
Cathedral...

In his letter YABLOKO leader also responded
to the initiative of Anton Tsvetkov, head of public organization
"Russian Officers", who had proposed to introduce
criminal liability for non-obeying police. According to
Mitrokhin, another measure should be introduced toughening
the liability for policemen for lying. "First
of all police officers must be punished for lying. In
can tell that when I or my colleagues were brought to
a police department there was not a single case when policemen
did not use lies to achieve their goals. Therefore it
is necessary to introduce a very large penalty for policemen
for lying with their subsequent disqualification from
the service," Mitrokhin told to Interfax on Tuesday.

...Organizing the lawsuit in the form
that we have the misfortune to watch, the authorities
are aiming at intimidation.

This is not good for the country, and
it is harmful to the Church. Intimidation is not the solution.
Perhaps fear may drive the protest depthward for some
time, but it will not disappear, and at some circumstances
it will come to the surface in a much more radical forms
that are more dangerous for the society. This may be compared
with a fire in the peat fields which goes only depthwards
when they are trying to put it out not correctly, and
at hot weather it comes powerfully to the surface as even
a greater fire.

From the legal point of view, the court
should have determined whether the girls’ action
had caused considerable harm to the society and whether
their action had displayed the signs of public danger
in the sense of a criminal law, and base their conclusions
not on manipulative reasons...

Today YABLOKO activists conducted a series
of pickets for the resignation of Alexander Tkachyov,
Governor of the Krasnodar Territory. The action was held
by the Permanent Mission of the Krasnodar Territory in
Moscow. YABLOKO activists were standing in turn by the
Mission with slogans “Tkachyov, go!”

“After the tragic flood in Krymsk,
[South Russia], Tkachyov have to resign. The liability
for the failure to alert the residents of the coming flood
lies directly on the government of the Krasnodar Territory.
I am ready to stand here 24 hours a day until Tkachyov
leaves post,” told Sergei Sokolov, participant of
the action and the deputy of Municipal Council Konkovo...

Yabloko
condemns controversial Pussy Riot Trial
LI News Bulletin, Issue 294, August 2, 2012Yabloko's leader Sergei Mitrokhin (LI Full
Member, Russia) voiced his concerns that the violation
committed by Pussy Riot members does not constitute grounds
for keeping
them in custody. He said: “The developments
demonstrate once again that we can hardly speak about
any genuine liberalization of law-enforcement in Russia.
Considering the political roots of the incident we cannot
rule out that such tough measures are a mere revenge of
the authoritarian state who are using juridical mechanisms
as a reprisal instrument used on personal motives.”
In a statement condemning the arrest of three female members
of the Russian band “Pussy Riot”, Yabloko
expressed clear disagreement with the charges of hooliganism
and religious hostility brought against them, calling
on the authorities for their immediate release, especially
since two of them are mothers of small children. The members
of the group were arrested in February after performing
a protest song against President Vladimir Putin at Moscow's
main Cathedral. If convicted the women could spend up
to seven years in prison.

Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander
Tkachyov, his deputies and officials of the regional Emergency
Ministry Department should be included into suspects in
investigation of the causes of flooding in Krymsk, South
Russia. Such a statement was made by YABLOKO leader Sergei
Mitrokhin at today's press conference, which drew up the
first results of YABLOKO's investigation of the causes
of the flood.

Activists from the North Caucasus Environmental
Watch, Andrei Rudomakha, leader of the Krasnodar branch
of YABLOKO, Yugeny Vitishko, chairman of the Tuapse branch
of YABLOKO and Yugeny Pimkin, resident of Volgograd region
whose son died in a flood in Gelendzhik trying to save
people, also participated in the press-conference. According
to YABLOKO's activists, a natural calamity coupled with
negligence of the governments lead to such a large number
of casualties in Krymsk. No system for public notification
in case of emergency had been created in the region prone
to flooding. Possible negative consequences of economic
activities in the region that may lead to flooding had
been also neglected. The governments learned nothing from
the experience of the disaster in 2002, when a flood in
Krymsk killed 62 people...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin sent an
appeal to the Moscow police chief Anatoly Yakunin asking
disclose the criteria behind awarding gratuitous flats
to the policemen participating in dispersing of a rally
at Bolotnaya Square, Moscow, on May 6...

YABLOKO sent the inquiry to the Moscow
Government as early as on May 25. The answer received
from the officials ran that the city annually allocated
housing to the Interior Ministry, however, distribution
of the flats was carried out by the ministry...

On Tuesday, July 31, YABLOKO will conduct
press conference “Who is liable for the catastrophic
flood in Krymsk: the disaster or the governments?”
The conference will take place in the Independent Press
Centre. YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin and leaders of
the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO will tell about the results
of their investigation of the tragedy taking the lives
of many people in South Russia.

The participants of the press-conference:

Sergei Mitorkhin, Chairman, YABLOKO
Andrei Rudomakha, head of the Krasnodar Region branch
of YABLOKO;
Yugeny Vitishko, head of the Tuapse branch of YABLOKO.

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin expressed
his opinion that regional government officials and Alexander
Tkachyov, Governor of the Krasnodar Region and top officials
of the regional department of the Ministry of Emergency
Situations, should be made liable for the negligence resulting
in mass victims during the recent flood in the Krasnodar
region...

In his blog Sergei Mitrokhin analysed
the legal acts related to the prevention of emergencies
in the Krasnodar region and came to the conclusion that
regional authorities did not fulfill the responsibilities
entrusted to them by law.

In particular, Governor Alexander Tkachyov
did not commission any of his deputies to supervise the
implementation of the regulations "A system of warning
and informing of the public about the threat of emergencies".
After publication of the regulations in 2005, the control
over its implementation was entrusted to A. Ivanov, however,
now there is no such a Deputy Governor with such a name.

In addition, for the past seven years
the regional government has not allotted any funds for
creation of a system for alerting citizens about emergencies.
This should have been made from the regional budget, however,
each year, the regulations of 2005 did not contain such
a clause. Also since 2005 they have prolonged the regulations
of 2005 without including a clause on funding of the system.

"In any normal state an official
responsible for such criminal negligence would be immediately
dismissed. Only in Russia such an official can retain
his gubernatorial post for another five years presenting
a threat to millions of people living in the region governed
by him," Mirokhin wrote in his blog.

..."There is no doubt that economic
activity of the Private Hunters' Club played a negative
role in the flooding of Armyansky, Sheptalsky and Novoukrainsky
villages," noted EcoWatch experts. These villages
located in the valley of the Psyzh River are outside the
influence of the flood from the Adagum River affecting
Krymsk abd Nizhnebakanskaya and Neverdjayevskaya villages.
However, these three villages were also serely affected.
In addition to destruction and damaging of housing the
flood led to human victims there.

On July 16 YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin
demanded from Yury Chaika, Public Prosecutor General,
to bring to justice the officials whose negligence and
lack of action led to flooding of three settlements in
the Krymsk district.

...MK: Yes, the protest movement was preoccupied
mainly with creativity: a competition of funny banners
and photoshopped pictures. It was too busy with this to
think about elections.

GY: Because the people who took on the
role of organisers of the protest movement were developing
the form without filling it with content. That is why
the rallies demonstrated an abundance of inventions, funny
posters and performances. But by the spring the main "faces"
of the protest have already partially changed. The new
“faces” have quickly realized that it was
necessary to leave the glamour and creativity –
it was a deadlock. They tried to make camps by the fountain
at the Pushkin square, breakthrough to the Manezh square,
put forward incredible demands to the authorities and
socialize at the boulevards. But this was also development
of one form only, without any content, including the “Occupy
Abai” action (Ed. “Occupy Abai” was
a camp in the centre of Moscow by the monument to Kazakh
poet and philosopher Abai Kunanbayev). It was clear what
“Occupy Wall Street” was about. Wall Street
is the personification of the type of living the “occupants”
protest against. And what does “Occupy Abai”
mean? Again, it is an interesting form of protest but
not filled with so much needed political content.

MK: A transition from the ideological
to the physical opposition was a natural development of
the protests. Is not is how they should grow - from coming
to rallies to creation of permanent camps of the dissenting?
from peaceful methods and slogans to violent clashes?

GY: No, it isn’t. Because in case
of physical and violent confrontation with the authorities
the protest movement would immediately lose and in general
can be even permanently destroyed. The organisers of rallies
must understand that this is unacceptable. In addition,
if you invite people to an [officially] permitted rally,
they should not get into trouble - people can not be victimized.
If one is professionally engaged in the organisation of
mass-scale peaceful protests and wants precisely this,
this can be done. If one has other goals, than it will
be the other way.

MK: Do you think ‘the other way”
prevailed during protests on May 6?

GY: The desire for exploring "another
heroic way" has been there for all these months.
However, after the first attempt on December 5, this thrust
was marginal, inferior to the general belief in the power
of peaceful mass protests. But the protest did not yield
immediate results as tangible concessions from the government,
or provided a coherent perspective that could have been
indicated by the political leadership. Thus, the lead
was taken by the left, nationalists and supporters of
the thesis “you cannot make an omlette without breaking
eggs”. The question of responsibility for the health
and lives of people was either redirected to the government
or simply removed from the agenda. They said that under
the current conditions the true organisers of mass actions
were Twitter and FaceBook...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin demanded
from Yury Chaika, Public Prosecutor General, to bring
to justice the officials whose negligence and lack of
action led to flooding of three settlements in the Krymsk
district. Local residents warned the officials and prosecutors
about improper condition of a dam of one water reservoirs,
but received no reply. In the night of July 6-7 the dam
burst, and the flow of water went to the villages.

On July 9 Mitrokhin along with the activists
of the party and the North Caucasus Environmental Watch
held a public inspection of the area around Armyansky
and Sheptalsky villages and Novoukrainsky town...

As early as on March 28 E.Andruhovich,
resident of Armyansky village, applied to the Department
of Natural Resources of the State Environmental Supervision
of the Krasnodar Territory. He complained about improper
exploitation of the forest lake, which created a threat
of flooding of private lands in a flood prone period.
A similar application was sent to Public Prosecutor of
the Krasnodar Territory...

Today YABLOKO activists conducted by the
State Duma a series of one-person pickets against the
law on non-profit organisations and the libel law considerably
worsening the situation for civil society activists. YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin who also participated in the action
said that the State Duma should concentrate on the creation
of a commission for investigating the causes of the tragic
flood in the Krasnodar Territory, rather than consideration
of reprisals prone amendments to the law on non-profit
organisations and restoring liability for libel as a criminal
offense.

YABLOKO activists in turn held a banner
picturing Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Heinrich Himmler,
Felix Dzerzhinsky, Lavrenty Beria and Vladimir Putin with
a subscription "Amendments to the law on non-profit
organisations. Fascists are for it! KGB people are for
it!"
Sergei Mitrokhin also participated in a journalists' picket
against the libel law. He drew a placard "No to the
libel law" at site...

Press Release, July 6, 2012.
On 6 July activists of the YABLOKO party held a series
of one-person pickets protesting against the amendments
giving a status of a "foreign agent" to a number
of Russian non-profit organisations. The action was held
outside the main entrance to the State Duma which plans
to pass the amendments at first reading.
YABLOKO activists including Sergei Mitrokhin, party leader,
Galina Mikhalyova, YABLOKO Bureau member, and Kirill Gontcharov,
leader of Youth YABLOKO, picketed the State Duma entrance
in turn with a banner "The amendments to the law
on non-profit organisations are way to a fascist state"...

On July 5 - 6 July a natural disaster
broke out in several regions of the Krasnodar Territory.
A heavy flood led to numerous victims among the local
residents. Resort city Gelendzhik and Novorossiysk suffered
from the disaster, however, but the most affected was
the Krymsk District.

In the evening of July 6 YABLOKO and North
Caucasus Environmental Watch activists organized a Public
Aid Centre in Krymsk for providing aid to the residents
of the city and the district. It is located at the address:
Krymsk, Sverdlov street 9/1 (in the building of kindergarten
No 19). Tel: +7 953 116 81 62 (Alexei Mandrigelya), +7
953 074 73 98 (Victoria Zolotaryova from 7.00 a.m. of
July 9).

...Vitishko: We are working 24 hours a
day. We have made bunks and sleep in turn. I have not
slept since yesterday (laughs). We have about 20 people
working here. Our camp is divided into sectors: sectors
for delivery and provision of food, clothing, electricity,
etc. Now the city is completely de-energized, only we
have a generator. People are continuously coming to charge
phones or boil tea.
In the coming days we are planning to examine the streets
we have not visited yet. We will be walking around with
a megaphone, and will look for those who have not received
aid yet. I am afraid there will be such people –
there are many pensioners and elderly in the city who
have difficulty to move independently.

Question: Humanitarian aid is coming to
you from all over the country. How do people respond to
help?

Vitishko: They express their thankfulness.
They asked who we are and where do we come from...

Public Aid Centre for the victims of the
flood opened by YABLOKO’s activists and EcoWatch
in the North Caucasus the next day after the flood keeps
working in Krymsk. The Centre is situated at Adagumskaya
Street 153 in front of the shop Magnit.

Trucks with humanitarian aid arrive here
from different cities of the South Russia. For example,
today Alexei Mirukov, head of the Anapa branch of YABLOKO,
and Victor Krivoshapkin, a civil activist, brought medications
and food-stuffs.

A truck carrying a large tent where the
Centre will be located is on the way from Novorossiysk.
Yet the activists have been working outside day and night.
Local government gave neither a tent nor a room to the
volunteers...

A natural disaster leading to numerous
victims took place in some parts of the Krasnodar Area
(southern Russia) yesterday and today. The YABLOKO party
expresses condoles to the relatives and next of kin of
the victims.
Resort city Gelindgik and Novorossiysk suffered from the
disaster, but the most affected was the Krymsk Area with
the highest number of victims. The tragedy was caused
by torrential rains leading to a flood which inundated
a large number of settlements. However, in the case of
Krymsk and Neberdzhayevskeya village the tragedy was caused
not only by weather conditions but also the actions of
the authorities who had not taken the necessary precautions
to prevent the disaster.

As was found out by the activists of the
Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO, the dramatic lifting of water
in the Krymsk city last night was caused by an emergency
discharge from the Neberdzhayevsky water-storage pond
situated in the mountains above the city. The population
was not alerted about that discharge which became one
more reason for the tragedy...

Flood victims left without help in Krymsk
are holding a spontaneous rally. People state they may
go to extreme measures such as blocking the main street
of the city so that to draw attention of the government
to their situation.

Such information has been released by
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin who is now in Krymsk.
According to Mitrokhin, it turned out that about 200 residents
of the city (from Chernyshevsky and Lunacharsky streets)
waiting for help for three days already have not got any
help from the authorities, as well as food or fresh water.
Their houses are flooded, but water is not pumped out,
and since the beginning of disaster they have received
no assistance whatsoever from either the administration,
or the Emergency Situations Ministry...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin and Andrei
Rudomakha, head of the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO, arrived
in Krymsk, the Krasnodar area, severely ruined by flood.
They brought a truck with humanitarian aid to the Aid
Centre for victims opened by YABLOKO’s activists and the
EcoWatch close to Adagumskaya Street 153 on July 6. This
part of the city was most affected by the flood.

YABLOKO's activists and supporters participated
in demonstration of the opposition in Moscow. Party members
formed a column under the banner "We demand new elections!".
The column was led by party leaders Grigory Yavlinsky,
Valery Borshchyov, Anatoly Golov, Yugeny Bunimovich, Galina
Mikhalyova, leader of the Youth Yabloko Kirill Goncharov
and other.

"We participate in today's demonstration
because millions of people do not agree with the policies
pursued by Vladimir Putin, as well as lawlessness [in
the country]. We received a mandate from our voters -
and only according to the official data, there are over
two million of such people – for a continuous political
struggle for a different system: for fair elections, an
independent judiciary, equality before the law and the
inviolability of property rights," Grigory Yavlinsky
said to journalists...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin commenting
to the Echo Moskvi radio station the searches in the homes
of Alexei Navalny and other opposition activists noted
that police reprisals also affected YABLOKO’s activists:

"Our activists are affected, in particular, such
psychological pressure was used against Kirilll Gontcharov,
leader of the Moscow branch of Youth YABLOKO, as police
tried to get into his home yesterday. Now he has to hide.
Our activists also suffer from this impudent police pressure,
which is not connected to any violations and is not based
on law.

I believe that after the adoption of amendments to the
law on rallies the country transferred to an open dictatorship
regime. Putin ceased imitating democracy, he abandoned
all his masks. Searches and other police actions are the
links of the same chain."

Press Release, June 9, 2012.
...On June 11, Mitrokhin will participate in the conference
of the regional branch of YABLOKO.

On June 12, he will meet students, political
scientists and other citizens in the conference hall of
hotel Tourist at 11:30. The topic of the meeting is "Omsk
on the threashold of mayoral elections". Address:
Str. Broz Tito, 2.

Then YABLOKO leader will join the rally
in support of Moscow's March of the Millions.

A public inspection on problematic sites
of the city will take place at 15:13: Ptichya Gavan (Birds’
Harbour) – Zyelyoniy Ostrov (Green Island) - Metro – Silicon
plant.

On June 13 (at 15:00) Sergei Mitrokhin,
Alexander Korotkov, YABLOKO's candidate for mayor of Omsk,
and Tatiana Ovcharenko, renowned expert in the field of
protection of citiznes' rights in the housing and utilities
sector, will participate in the press conference "Challenges
before Omsk on the Threashold of the Mayoral Elections".
The press conference will take place in the press center
of the Komsomolskaya Pravda paper.

The YABLOKO party will participate in
the March of the Millions on June 12 where it will protest
against signing by President Putin of the new law on rallies
virtually putting a ban on street actions.

YABLOKO activists will form a column under
the slogan "The law on rallies is a way to a fascist
state". All YABLOKO's previous protest actions were
conducted under this slogan when the draft law was examined
by the State Duma and the Federation Council. Then YABLOKO
protested at all the stages of the legislative process
- by the Duma, the Federation Council and the Kremlin.

YABLOKO activists will bring banners illustrating
the reprisals prone nature of the law: picturing Adolf
Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Heinrich Himmler, Felix Dzerzhinsky,
Lavrenty Beria and Vladimir Putin with a subscription
"Fascists are for it! KGB people are for it!"...

Signing by Russian President Vladimir
Putin of amendments into the law on rallies and the Administrative
Offenses Code toughening punishment for violations during
mass public actions represents an actual ban on street
political actions, said YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin.

"Virtually this represents a ban
on rallies and political actions. Everyone – organizers,
activists and all public persons from all the sides are
under blow," Mitrokhin told Interfax on Friday night.

He also noted that YABLOKO will not hold
street actions against the law in the nearest time.

"Everyone may be sentenced to a slave
labour or a huge fine from now on. I can not call people
to come to a rally realizing that they can be sent to
the galleys from there," the oppositional politician
added.

From Ms Maja KOCIJANCIC, Spokesperson
of Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative of the Union
for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

The EU has noted the adoption of a bill
yesterday by both houses of the Russian Federal Assembly
that significantly increases fines and reinforces other
forms of punishment for violations during public events,
i.e. rallies and demonstrations.

The EU is concerned about the possible
implications of this bill, many of which have already
been underlined by many Russian politicians, journalists
and civil society actors.

We understand that the signing of this
bill by the President is still under consideration. We
have also taken note of the President’s intention to consult
further and hear all views before taking a final decision
on this bill.

As a neighbour and as Russia's Strategic
Partner, the EU believes that the recent civic activism
offers a valuable opportunity for the state to engage
in a constructive dialogue with civil society which could
bring benefits to both sides. In our view regulations
that discourage civic engagement are not conducive to
achieve this objective. However, some encouraging reforms
have been announced by the Russian government, and this
process should be taken further...

The EU is concerned by reports that 18
peaceful protesters, including some prominent Yabloko
members, were arrested during a peaceful demonstration
against the new bill on public rallies outside the State
Duma.

The EU recalls Russia's international
commitments as a member of the Council of Europe and the
OSCE to guarantee the freedom of expression and the freedom
of assembly.

In an unprecedented turn of events, Yabloko
(LI full-member) leader Sergei Mitrokhin, along with 12
activists, was arrested by the police in a peaceful walking
protest against the recently proposed controversial 'law
on rallies.' All of the activists wore T-shirts with the
slogan of the action 'The Law On 'Rallies' is a way to
a fascist state.' The law in question will increase fines
on demonstrators who violate public order. Mitrokhin was
detained in a separate room and his lawyer was not allowed
to visit him or be present for the interrogations by the
state police. According to Mitrokhin, the amendments into
the law on rallies and the Administrative Offences Code
adopted recently by the State Duma are installing a dictatorship
in the country. 'Today the government has signed a verdict
for itself. If the protest cannot be expressed by peaceful
and legal means, then it will find a way out through other
means,' said Mitrokhin. Yabloko's International Officer
Olga Radayeva called the arrests 'absurd' and urged for
the immediate release of the party's leader and activists.

Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin called
for the new law on rallies to be sent back to the State
Duma Committee for revision, while the Council for Human
Rights under the Russian President published an expert
assessment saying that the law violates Russian Constitution,
Interfax reported on June 7.

According to Lukin, "the study of
the law has shown that the document is hasty and contradictory,
lacking a strict concept or clear criteria." "Instead
of developing the procedure for agreeing the terms of
public events and increasing the responsibility of officials
for declining to agree, the focus is on proscriptive and
prescriptive measures," the statement goes on. It
warns that this is "likely to lead to a rise in the
number of un-agreed, radical and sometimes extremist rallies",
while the widely expected future convictions of rally
organisers will "rightly be seen by citizens as unlawful
and sometimes repressive"...

Press Service by the Novosibirsk
branch of YABLOKO, June 7, 2012.
The Novosibirsk regional branch of YABLOKO oraganised
a one-person picket (which does not require prior notification
or obtaining a permission from the authorities) against
toughening of the law on rallies stipulating sharp raising
of fines for violations at rallies and demonstrations.
About ten activists participated
in picketing changing each other in turn for several hours
in the centre of the city.

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin and 12
activists of a protest action by the walls of the Kremlin
were arrested only because they refused to obey the police
order to take off their T-shirts. For 40 minutes of YABLOKO’s
and other civil society activists were walking in Manezhnaya
Square in white T-shirts with inscriptions "The law
on rallies is the way to a fascist state". And only
when Sergei Mitrokhin proposed to walk along Tverskaya
Street to the monument to famous Russian poet Pushkin,
the police asked the activists to take off the T-shirts
and on hearing refuses the police began detentions...

Arrests of protesters have begun at Manaezhnaya
Square in the centre Moscow. YABLOKO activists planned
to begin a protest action in the Alexander Gardens by
the Kremlin wall, however, it was “suddenly” closed an
hour before the action. Therefore it was decided to protest
at the Manegnaya Square nearby.

All the activists wearing T-shirts with
the slogan of the action “The Law “On Rallies” is a way
to a fascist state.”

Sergei Mitrokhin and 11 activists (four
girls among them) were taken by police to the patrol wagons...

People gathered by the President’s reception
office in Volgograd at 2 p.m. today. The participants
of the gathering were protesting against the adoption
of the law on rallies and were trying to get into Vladimir
Putin’s reception office so that to hand in a petition
proposing that the President should veto the bill passed
by the State Duma yesterday. The police arrested six people:
Nikolai Belikov, Sergey Mazanov, Boris Stikhin, Artyom
Panenko, Yulia Vlasenko and Leonid Makhinya. Some of them
were YABLOKO members other represented public movement
"For Fair Elections" and independent media...

According to YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin,
the amendments into the law on rallies and the Administrative
Offences Code adopted yesterday by the State Duma and
proved by the upper chamber of the parliament – the Federation
Council – today are installing dictatorship in the country.
Mitrokhin has made such a statement today by the Federation
Council. Today YABLOKO has conducted a series of one-person
pickets (that do not require a permission from the authorities)
against the adoption of the such amendments.
Activists of the Youth YABLOKO, Sergei Sokolov, municipal
deputy from the YABLOKO party, and Sergei Mitrokhin stood
in turn by the main entrance to the Federation Council
with a placard “The law on rallies is a way towards a
fascist state!” The placard also pictured portraits of
Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Heinrich Himmler, Felix
Dzerzhinsky, Lavrenty Beria and Vladimir Putin approving
the new law. “Fascists are for it! KGB people are for
it!” ran the placard...

6.06.2012 Ahead of new opposition protests
scheduled for next week, around 20 activists, including
Mr Mitrokhin, leader of Yabloko, protesting against a
bill toughening responsibility for organisation of and
participation in mass rallies were arrested yesterday
in Moscow.

The new law has been approved by the Russian
Parliament and is awaiting promulgation by President Putin.
The bill punishes organisers and participants of any mass
public gathering - even those lacking formal attributes
of a political protest - for any acts that perturb the
circulation of pedestrians or vehicles, drastically raising
fines from max. 5000 rubles (120 €) to max. 300000 rubles
(over 7000 €).

"Participation in mass rallies cannot
be the privilege of the rich. The Monitoring Committee
of the Parliamentary Assembly will certainly be informed
of these worrying developments in Russia. President Putin
has the right not to sign the bill. And I sincerely hope
that he will use this right, taking account of the criticism
voiced by lawyers, civil society and opposition parties,
as well as the demands to engage into public consultations.
Another mechanism available to all member states of the
Council of Europe is the legal opinions of the Venice
Commission. In order to avoid the violation of Council
of Europe standards, it would be appropriate if the Russian
authorities requested such an opinion on the draft law
before it comes into force," said Anne Brasseur,
President of ALDE-PACE.

Strasbourg, 06.06.2012 – The co-rapporteurs
for Russia of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, Andi Gross (Switzerland,
SOC) and György Frunda (Romania, EPP/CD) today expressed
their serious concern at the adoption by the lower chamber
of the Russian Parliament of a controversial bill designed
to increase fines for orchestrating unauthorised demonstrations.
They called on the upper chamber – which is due to debate
the draft law today – to reject it and called on the President
not to sign it into law.

The law provides that organisers of unsanctioned
protests can be charged up to the equivalent of 39,000
euros and participants up to 13,000 euros.

“This measure would undermine freedom
of expression and freedom of assembly,” said the co-rapporteurs.
“It would symbolise a lost opportunity to strengthen the
democratic process in the Russian Federation as it would
close the window of opportunity opened in the last six
months following the massive demonstrations by the Russian
population. The dynamic activity of society should be
used to implement reforms instead of being suppressed.”

The co-rapporteurs said that in their
view fines of a considerably lower value may be imposed
on the organisers of authorised demonstrations or individual
participants in justified cases when the latter cause
material damage or use violence, and they should always
be decided by the courts. “There are well-established
democratic standards in this respect, and they should
be followed,” they said.

“The advantages of exercising the right
to freedom of expression outweigh by far any possible
disadvantages caused by those who abuse this right. These
advantages considerably contribute to the development
of a pluralistic and democratic society,” the co-rapporteurs
concluded.

By Anna VvedenskayaToday police have begun arrests among the
participants of walking protests against adoption of the
law restricting the constitutional right to assembly and
protest. YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin, Galina Mikhalyova,
Executive Secretary of YABLOKO s Political Committee,
Kirill Gontcharov, leader of the Youth YABLOKO, Sergei
Sokolov, municipal deputy from the YABLOKO party ??“ 18
people in total, nine of them are YABLOKO members - are
arrested by the State Duma. The police have also used
violence in arresting several civil activists. At present
the police are going on detaining activists...
At this moment in time all of them are realised but the
are faicing charges of "hooliganism"...

Sir Graham Watson MEP, President and Astrid
Thors MP, Vice-President of the ELDR Party jointly voiced
the concern of European Liberals about the arrests of
ELDR member party Yabloko's activists and other civil
society organisations protesting today against a further
limitation of the right to assembly and to express your
opinions freely.

This is particularly disappointing for European Liberals
as this happens only one day after the EU-Russia Summit
where President Vladimir Putin ironically informed the
world that "everybody
is walking freely now" who protested against
the rules regulating mass protests.

"We do agree with European Council President Herman
van Rompuy and Commission President José Manuel Barroso
that we need to build closer relations with Russia, however,
as a signatory to the Council of Europe, Russia must abide
by European standards of democratic participation for
its citizens if it wants to build a relationship based
on shared values as much as on common interests."

It is not acceptable to fine people for exercising the
fundamental right of assembly on grounds of disrupting
public order as also reported by Human
Rights Watch.

Russian police earlier today arrested
18 civilian activists just outside the Russian State Duma,
including Sergei Mitrokhin and a number of prominent Yabloko
party members, who had assembled for a peaceful demonstration,
ironically against a proposal for a law which seeks to
enforce tough penalties on civil protesters. The incident
occurred just one day after the EU-Russia summit in St
Petersburg in which issues of democracy and human rights
were kept off the agenda.

"This heavy-handed police intervention against peaceful
protesters shows, with tragic clarity, that Putin now
is trying to crush what remains of civil action. The promises
of reforms from last winter's large-scale demonstrations
were just smokescreens to secure his re-election"
said Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the ALDE Group.

"The lack of any outcome from the EU-Russia summit
on 3rd and 4th of June in St Petersburg shows that the
EU needs a new policy for dealing with Russia, based on
objective criticism and on an insistence that democratic
standards and the rule of law must be respected before
Russia can be regarded as a true strategic partner and
move forward on issues like visa free travel"

"The new legislative proposal that calls for excessive
sanctions against all protesters and today's arrest of
Sergei Mitrokhin and others are clear signs that the Kremlin
does not take into the account the large scale internal
and external criticism over the lack of democracy and
rule of law in Russia. Just last weekend during the EU-Russia
Summit, president Putin indicated that Russia is a country
where everybody's civil rights are guaranteed. Unfortunately
the reality continues to be different. Thus the EU will
have to sharpen the way it deals with Russia and realize
that the brutal reality is far from the marble halls and
palaces President Putin likes to display for visiting
EU delegations" said Kristiina Ojuland, ALDE Group
spokesperson on Russia.

The YABLOKO party will continue protesting
against adoption of the law raising penalties on rallies
by the Federation Council and in the Alexander Gardens
by the Kremlin. Two actions will be held in Moscow tomorrow.
At 11:00 activists of the Youth YABLOKO will hold a series
of pickets by the Federation Council, the upper chamber
of the Russian parliament, which has to give its approval
to the law. At 19:00 YABLOKO invites all the people to
come to Alexander Gardens by the Kremlin wall so that
to appeal to President Putin.

It is expected that tomorrow, on June
6, the Federation Council will consider amendments to
the law on rallies and the Administrative Code, which
have been adopted by the State Duma in the second and
third reading today. At 11 a.m. Youth YABLOKO activists
will come to the Federation Council so that to remind
the senators: toughening of penalties for rallies is a
way towards a fascist state. The activists will hold placards
with portraits of dictators and torturers who would have
supported the draft law initiated by the ruling United
Russia party: fascists Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini
and Heinrich Himmler, as well as KGB people Felix Dzerzhinsky,
Lavrenty Beria and Vladimir Putin.

As there are not doubts that the Federation
Council will, as usual, support the reactionary amendments,
YABLOKO calls all the people to Alexander Gardens at 19:00
so that to appeal to President Vladimir Putin.

The action in the Alexander Gardens will
take place without any political symbols and placards,
so yet it does not require approvals from the authorities...

Police have begun arrests among the participants
of walking protests against adoption of the law restricting
the constitutional right to assembly and protest. YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin, Galina Mikhalyova, Executive
Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political Committee, Kirill Gontcharov,
leader of the Youth YABLOKO, Sergei Sokolov, municipal
deputy from the YABLOKO party – 18 people in total, nine
of them are YABLOKO members - are arrested by the State
Duma. The police have also used
violence in arresting several civil activists. At present
the police are going on detaining activists...

...The proposed amendments would significantly
increase the fines for violating rules for holding public
events and impose various other restrictions that will
make it more difficult and costly for those opposed to
government policies to engage in public protests, Human
Rights Watch said. The proposed amendments increase the
maximum penalty for individuals from 1000 rubles (US$60)
to 300,000 rubles (US$9,000). Penalties for legal entities
would reach a maximum of 1 million rubles (US$30,000)...

Today, on May 31, the day when actions
in protection of Article 31 of the Constitution guaranteeing
RF citizens the right to assemble peacefully, without
weapons, hold rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets
are normally held [in Russia].

On this day, I am turning to you calling
you to pay very close attention to the amendments prepared
by the State Duma to the Administrative Offences Code
and Federal Law No 54 "On Assemblies, Rallies, Demonstrations,
Processions and Pickets". These amendments are prohibitive
and maximally limit the constitutional right of citizens
to protests.

Not only do they set high penalties [for
the rallies], but also make any form of street activity
impossible and broaden the possibilities for abuse by
the police providing grounds for absurd accusations...

Pyotr Ivanchikov, YABLOKO’s activist and
organiser of an action against raising of penalties for
rallies, will to stand trial for oragnisation of an action.
After his detention he was held
for in a local police department for four hours (instead
of the maximum three hours allowed by law). He is incriminated
“violation of the established order of oragnisation of
a rally” (Article 20.2 of the Administrative Offences
Code).

Ivanchikov is accused that the topic of
the rally differed with the topic agreed upon with the
authorities. YABLOKO had applied for a permission to conduct
a rally stating the topic of urgent elections of the Moscow
Mayor, however, in light of the events of raising penalties
for rallies by the parliament, YABLOKO changed the topic
(such a change is not prohibited by the law)...

A theatrical action against toughening
of penalties for violations at the rallies took place
in Novopushkinsky Garden on May 27. Potential "violators"
were implementing compulsory community services under
the sounds of military marches of Hitler's Germany without
waiting for the final adoption of the draft law toughening
the penalties by the ruling United Russia faction. Half
an hour after the start of the action, its organiser Pyotr
Ivanchikov was detained by police for alleged non-conformity
of the declared topic of the rally with the actual one.
"Muscovites complain about the Nazi marches,"
a police lieutenant told the journalists.

While the protesters were filling Novopushkinsky
Garden, YABLOKO activists wearing prisoners' hats broomed
the pavement under the sounds of military marches from
Hitler's Germany.

"We want to show that the State Duma
is going to adopt a law natural in a totalitarian state,"
said YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin opening the meeting.
“Under the clamour of possible reduction of fines from
1.5 million roubles to 300,000 roubles, the State Duma
adopted a resolution listing these monstrous amendments,”
he noted.

Participants of the action demonstrated
disproportionate punishment for “violations” that would
be introduced by the new law. They could have been convicted
to compulsory community services only for wearing the
Guy Fawkes masks. In addition, each of them wore a plaque
innumerating other "aggravating circumstances",
such as "walking across Moscow", "trampling
the grass," and "wearing a white ribbon"...

The State Duma has been examining amendments
stipulating the raise of penalties for rallies up to 1.5
million roubles. The amendments
constitute another crime buy the ruling Unite Russia party
against the nation.

A general protest rally against the draft
law will take place on Sunday. The rally has a permission
from the Moscow authorities.

The government has to see that no penalties
will stop us. We are not going to
speak about some abstract democracy. We will say #DumaStop.
We are against the amendments. And we will make them listen
to us.

The police released YABLOKO leader Sergei
Mitrokhin without any charge. However, other YABLOKO activists
detained by the State Duma will have to stand before court
"for participation in an unsanctioned picket"...

All the detainees were transported to
the police department and all of them but for Sergei Mitrokhin
were charged with “violation of the established order
or organization of a rally”. The policemen did not set
any charges against Mitrokhin referring to some order.

The activists will stand before court
on May 30. Their cases will be examined by a judge notoriously
famous for her tough sentences to opposition activists.

Several YABLOKO activists were detained
by police during “walking protests” conducted by YABLOKO
by the State Duma this morning. The police detained YABLOKO
Chairman Sergei Mitrokhin and Kirill Gontcharov, leader
of the Youth Yabloko, and three other activists of the
party...

...Sergei Mitrokhin called the police
actions be absolute lawlessness, as the activists were
detained at a legal action which did not require a special
approval. " The police actions have proved once again
how dangerous the adoption of the amendments [on raising
fines of rallies] are to all of us," Mitrokhin said.
He noted that the parliament wanted to set impossibly
high fines for violations at the rallies which would deprive
people of an opportunity to peacefully express their views.
"This may push people to an armed rebellion,"
he said...

Tomorrow on May 18, Youth YABLOKO activists
will conduct a series of pickets by the State Duma against
adoption of the law on toughening punishment for violations
at rallies. Kirill Gontcharov, leader of the Youth YABLOKO,
will participate in the action.The
picket will begin at 9:30 a.m.

Tomorrow the Russian parliament will examine
a draft law on the introduction of a fine amounting to
RUR 1.5 mln (approximately USD 50,000) for violations
at rallies. The draft law was submitted by the ruling
United Russia deputies and envisages a raise of a maximum
fine for the organizers and participants of mass-scale
actions to RUR 1.5 mln.

On Tuesday, the Duma Committee on Constitutional
Legislation and State Building recommended to adopt the
draft law in the first reading.

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin and Galina
Mikhalyova, First Deputy Chair of the Moscow YABLOKO,
joined YABLOKO activists who had been visiting the opposition
camp at Chistiye Prudi by Abai Kunanbyev monument all
these days.

Mitrokhin and Mikhalyova answered protesters'
questions and even tasted food from the mobile kitchen.

"We support any peaceful protest
forms that do not violate the Russian law and are not
connected with provocations and adventurism," Mitrokhin
said. He added that the scope of mass-scale protests and
their efficiency can only grow only like this.

Mitrokhin also noted that "the government
does not have any motives for violent action against the
campers."

"We will be
categorically against any attempts to provoke violence
whoever would initiate these – either the government or
the protester," he stressed.

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin has forwarded
a letter to President of Russia Vladimir Putin asking
him to take under his personal control the problem of
11 large families that for various reasons remained homeless.

These are families from different regions
of Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, Krasnodar
and the Moscow region. Many of these families have seven
children and more and in some families there are disabled
children. These families have not received child benefits
and other allowances for years...

...Basmanny Court on Tuesday ordered the
camp at Chistiye Prudy closed in response to a lawsuit
by residents of the area around the former camp who complained
of inaction by authorities. (Related article: Court
Orders Protest Camp Dismantled)

Leader of the liberal Yabloko party Sergei
Mitrokhin called the police action illegal in a message
on Twitter, saying he had filed an appeal of the Basmanny
Court decision late Tuesday.

St. Petersburg. May 15. Interfax.ru –
Grigory Yavlinsky, founder of the YABLOKO party and deputy
of St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, spoke to the participants
of the “walking protests” at the St. Isaac's Square, St.Petersburg.

The [present] “walking protests” should
have a political meaning, they should not happen just
for nothing," he said, adding that the objective
should be victory of democratic forces at elections...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin appealed
against the decision to liquidate the opposition camp
in the garden at Chistiye Prudi boulevard, Moscow.

"I believe that this decision violates
my right to free walking in the garden without time restriction
and at any time," he said.

In addition, Mitrokhin noted that the
decision by the Basmanny Court, Moscow, did not envisage
immediate implementation, as the law stipulates that it
should be implemented only after the decision comes into
force, i.e. after 30 days from the date it was made...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin demands
from President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Governor of the
Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachyov and Sochi Mayor
Anatoly Pakhomov to immediately stop pulling down blocks
of flats in the center of Sochi (Plastunskaya street 80
and Golenva street, 7).

Bailiffs and riot police have thrown out
80 families, hoodwinked investors, who lived in these
blocks of flats and have begun pulling down the houses.
The houses are pulled down so that to build a parking
for coaches and buses for the guests of the Olympics for
the two weeks of the Olympic Games in 2014...

Alexander Shishlov, member of Yabloko's
(LI Full member) Bureau and LI Vice-President, was recently
elected as Commissioner for Human Rights in St. Petersburg.
His candidacy was supported by 45 out of a total of 50
deputies from St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly. Speaking
to parliamentarians Shishlov promised to focus on protection
of labour rights, the rights of the most vulnerable groups
of population, rights to education, medical care and a
healthy environment. Commenting on his election Shishlov
said "A Commissioner for Human Rights is not just
a defender of those whose rights have been violated. It
is a position that links the society with the government."
He also spoke of his commitment to promoting dialogue
and finding a common ground between public and government
agencies and protecting citizens' rights in such a way
as to create "an atmosphere of cooperation rather
than mutual disputes and misunderstandings." Yabloko's
leader Sergei Mitrokhin spoke
about the global impact of the Arab Spring on the Russian
political system at the recently convened 188th Executive
Committee meeting of Liberal International in Barcelona.

Alexander Shishlov, member of YABLOKO
Bureau, is elected Commissioner for Human Rights in St.
Petersburg; 45 deputies of St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly
out of total 50 deputies supported his candidacy.

Speaking to parliamentarians Shishlov
promised to focus on protection of labour rights, the
rights of the most vulnerable groups of population, rights
to education, medical care and a healthy environment.

He also highlighted protection of citizens' political
rights – the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly,
the right to participate in governing - 'the rights and
freedoms ensuring sustainable development and prosperity
of the country in today’s world"...

Here comes Alexander Shishlov’s statement
in connection with the nomination:

I am grateful to St.Petersburg Governor
for nomination of my candidacy to the post of Human Rights
Commissioner in our great city. I am also grateful to
all who supports my candidacy.

In case I am elected, my activities on
the post of Ombudsman will be based on close cooperation
with civil society institutes, critical and positive interaction
with the governments and local self-governments for fair,
peaceful and lawful solution of a human rights problems
in St. Petersburg. I undertake to be unbiased, impartial
and objective, regardless of personal preferences on the
post of Ombudsman...

...Kirill Goncharov, leader of the Moscow
Youth YABLOKO, and his colleagues Gleb Sitnikov and Oleg
Rumyantsev were detained at a protest action against smearing
of the public mass-scale protests against elections fraud
in a film produced and broadcasted by the NTV channel.
Goncharov, Sitnikov, and Rumyantsev were taken to police
stations.

According to the police, about 100 people were detained
at the action. about 100 people. Valery Borshchyov, member
of YABLOKO Bureau and head of the Moscow Public Observers'
Commission condemned the police actions...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin who is
now in Novosibirsk on a working visit participated in
a series of pickets in support of the Suren Gazaryan and
Viktor Dutlov. Young activists also joined the action
in Novosibirsk.

Solidarity actions with the detained environmentalists
took place all over Russia. In Moscow, the police detained
dozens of picketers, including four members of YABLOKO
– Galina Mikhalyova, deputy head of the Moscow branch
of YABLOKO, and activists Maya Zavyalova, Gleb Sitnikov
and Oleg Rumyantsev...

..."I am certainly glad that such
a decision was adopted. We know that President Medvedev
whom I handed the documents on Maxim facilitated the adoption
of such a decision. These documents clearly demonstrate
that the case was framed up," Mitrokhin said. He
also added that imprisonment was an "inadequate measure
showing that the case was purely political".

According to Mitrokhin, obvious inability
of Maxim Petlin’s family to pay such a bail is the vest
evidence that there was corruption in Petlin’s actions,
and this also another indirect proof that the accusation
in corruption was absurd...

Judicial Board on Criminal Cases of the
Sverdlovsk Regional Court refused to extend arrest for
Maxim Petlin, leader of Ekaterinburg YABLOKO, and granted
him bail amounting to RUR 5 million. Petlin will come
out of prison after the bail will be at the account of
the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation
in the Sverdlovsk region.

Maxim Petlin took an active part in the
fight against illegal construction of a recreational centre
in the place where a city park was. The fight between
YABLOKO and civil activists with the developer - Forum
Group - had loud public resonance. Maxim Petlin was the
victim of a provocation on the part of the Forum Group
and was accused of extorting bribes...

Unfortunately we have such a situation
in our country when those who defend their Motherland
and celebrate their professional holiday on February 23
should be defended from this Motherland.

On February 21 custody for Maxim Petlin,
leader of Ekaterinburg YABLOKO, was extended once again.

At present maxim Petlin, MP of Ekaterinburg
City Parliament and leader of YABLOKO’s regional branch,
is in the hospital of the detention facility. He has a
kidney problem. Probably his state deteriorated as he
was kept in a prison guards’ cold room which had no heating.

We are wishing Maxim health and strength.
We hope and wait that soon Maxim will return to his family
and public work. Russia needs such strong and honest people.

Maxim, the Defender of the Motherland
holiday of February 23 is your holiday!..

A meeting of leaders of registered political
parties with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has just
finished. The key issue of the meeting was discussion
of the political reform. The YABLOKO party was represented
by Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO Chairman, and Sergei Ivanenko,
Political Committee member.

Sergei Mitrokhin handed to President Medvedev
a list of demands put forward by participants of the demonstration
and rally of February 4, including the general resolution
of the rally, the resolution demanding registration of
Grigory Yavlinsky in the presidential election campaign
and the list of political prisoners...

Activists of the Sverdlovsk region branch
of the YABLOKO party conducted an action "Putin,
look, here are political prisoners…" on Friday, February
10. The activists held a many meters banner in front of
the Representation of the President in Ekaterinburg. The
banner contained names of political prisoners from the
list handed to the current President Dmitry Medvedev.

The action represents a reaction of Vladimir
Putin’s statement during his meeting with political scientists
when he asked them to show him "at least one political
prisoner".

According to YABLOKO activists, the people
from the list were convicted with the help of falsified
evidence, the actual reason for putting them into prison
were their political activities.

Maxim Petlin, leader of the Sverdlovsk
branch of YABLOKO, kept in the pre-trial detention prison
now is also in the list of such political prisoners.

Public prosecutor of Moscow
requires the YABLOKO party to provide information about
the organization, where the web-site server of yabloko.ru
is physically located. Investigators are interested in
the actual location of the organization, its legal address
and contact telephone numbers.

The request of the prosecutor's
office was given to the party this morning. Further, the
information must be provided to Zamoskvoretskaya Interdistrict
Prosecutor's Office as early as 15:00.

The requirements put forward
during the audit were launched upon request to the prosecution
by the Central Electoral Commission’s chief Vladimir Churov.
The latter appealed to the prosecutors after YABLOKO published
on its website the so-called "Churov list" -
a list of leaders of local electoral commissions, where
protocols of voting were falsified or the observers were
removed without any reason on the parliamentary elections
voting day December 4, 2011...

On December 29 at day time, Alexander
Senotrusov, YABLOKO's activist fighting against construction
of cottages in the natural reserve, was attacked for investigation
of land fraud in the Leningrad region. An unidentified
person wearing a mask hit Senotrusov on his head knocking
him off his feet. The beating continued when Senotrusov
was on the ground, the attacker was crying "Here
is for Zakhar!" Senotrusov is certain that the man
aimed at killing him.
According to Senotrusov, "Zakhar" was the nick
name of Yury Zakharchuk, head of municipal settlement
Lebyazhenskoye. Senotrusov initiated establishment of
a natural reserve which had to protect the coast line
of the Gulf of Finland (a traditional recreation place
for the local residents) from sale.
Senotrusov conducted at investigation of the fraud with
land in the Lomonosov District, the Leningrad region...

The Krasnodar branch of the YABLOKO party
expresses its protest in view of dismissal of Elena Kovalyova,
Director of cinema theatre “Russia” in Tuapse. YABLOKO
stated that Kovalyova was fired in violation of the Labor
Code, but the real reason behind the dismissal was her
principled stand against election fraud.

YABLOKO members are going to apply to
the Ministry of Culture and the Department of Culture
of the Krasnodar Area with a statement running that such
violations of the labour law are inadmissible...

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses condolences to the relatives of Khadzhimurad
Kamalov, an independent publisher of Dagestan social and
political weekly "Chernovik", killed tonight
in Makhachkala, Dagestan.

This is a great loss for Dagestan and
all Russian journalism.

We can state with the great pain that
it has been deadly dangerous in Russia to engage in honest
journalism and openly discuss political issues.

YABLOKO expresses protest in view of intimidation
of Golos, an independent association engaged in election
monitoring. The ruling United Russia party, A Just Russia
party and LDPR launched an intimidation campaign against
Golos asking Prosecutor General to suspend Golos monitoring
of violations during this parliamentary election campaign
and on the voting day December 4.

“It is not surprising that the [ruling]
United Russia party does not like the activities by Golos…
Speaking about participation of LDPR and A Just Russia
parties in this disgusting campaign against Golos, this
completely unmasks the hypocrisy of these parties advocating
fair elections in words only, but actually servicing to
the ruling party helping the latter to intimidate the
most respected Russian public organisation engaged in
elections control,” runs YABLOKO’s statement.

“YABLOKO will continue its cooperation
with Golos and will continue supporting this organisation
by all legal means,” Sergei Mitrokhin said.

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin who
is now in the working visit in Udmurtia is going to demand
from Prime Minister Putin to implement his promises on
providing aid to the victims of explosions at a military
arsenal near Pugachyovo village on June 2-3, 2011. According
to the local residents who came to meet Mitrokhin, the
money allotted by the government for repairs and building
of new houses did not come to the village. Most

Over 60 residents came to meet Sergei
Mitrokhin and Sergei Pechenin, leader of the Udmurtian
branch of YABLOKO. According to the local residents, most
of them did not get the compensations and repairs were
too slow, consequently the village was not ready for the
winter.

However the local authorities loudly announced
by television that every local resident had obtained RUR
100,000 of compensation (approximately USD 3,330). People
deny this telling that they have to sign falsified payment
receipts on implementation of all the repair works threatening
of non-paying the compensation...

...Petlin, now 38 and the only Yabloko
member in the 28-seat city Duma, kept battling the shopping
center. On Aug, 26, his freedom was revoked and he was
taken to pretrial Detention Center No. 1, which is so
overcrowded, Bashkov said, that each cell holds twice
its capacity. People sleep on the floor, or take turns
on the beds. Tuberculosis and hepatitis are rampant. "We
are talking about innocent people who haven't been tried,"
he said.

A few days ago, with prosecutors still
unprepared to try him, Petlin's detention was extended
until Dec. 22.

"I think he had an idea about the
scale of the corruption," said Petlin's wife, Tatyana,
"but none of us could even imagine this"...

YABLOKO leaders and activists participated
in the memorial action organised by the Memorial human
rights society and commemorating the victims of political
reprisals during Stalin’s period. The action took place
by the FSB (former KGB) building at Lubyanka square...

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin participated
in actions the memorial evening of tribute to Anna Polytkovskaya,
human rights activist and journalist of Novaya Gazeta,
murdered in the five years ago on October 7, 2006...

“I have always admired Anna Politkovskaya’s
courage and firmness in the search of the truth. We will
spare no effort so that the culprits of this murder be
detected and justly punished,” Mitrokhin said.

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin and Executive
Secretary of YABLOKO Political Committee Galina Mikhalyova
will participate in the memorial evening of tribute to
Anna Polytkovskaya, human rights activist and journalist
of Novaya Gazeta, murdered on October 7, 2006. The evening
will be organised by Novaya Gazeta.

On Friday YABLOKO activists are invited
to the House of Journalists to a film about Anna “A
Bitter Taste of Freedom” directed by Marina Goldovskaya.
The work on the film began in 1990 (Anna told then how
she had started working in Chechnya) and went on for 20
years.

In the evening YABLOKO activists will
lay flowers to the place where Anna was murdered (Lesnaya
8).

On September 5 a rally against restrictions
on abortions was held in the centre of Moscow. The organizers
of the rally were initiative group "For Free Motherhood",
the Russian Association "Population and Development",
coalition “Bunch of Ashberries. The Pro-Choice”. The only
political party supporting the right of women to make
decisions on abortions was the YABLOKO party. The participants
were holding banners "Do Not Oust Abortions into
the Shadow Sector!”, "A Conscientious Choice Is Better
Than Irresponsible Parenthood," "Medicine Must
Be Legal" and other.

The rally was held in connection with
parliament’s introduction of amendments into the draft
law on protection of health of citizens in the Russian
Federation, which will be examined by MPs in the second
reading already in November. The document introduces a
number of restrictions on abortions and also takes abortions
out of the list of services of "gratuitous medicine".
Also the draft law prohibits abortion without the consent
of a husband, obliges doctors to give women "a seven
days period for reflection", makes women to take
a mandatory “psychologist’s consultation” on immorality
of abortion and allows doctors to refuse from the operation
on "moral grounds"...

On September 3, on the seventh anniversary
of the terrorist attack against Beslan school YABLOKO
held a series of pickets in Moscow. (On September 1, 2004,
terrorists held 1,100 hostages, mainly schoolchildren,
in one of Beslan schools for three days: 334 people including
186 were killed and over 800 people were injured. Yet
the case still remains uninvestigated and Senator Torshin,
head of the Parliamentary Commission for investigation
of the act of terror has been keeping silent).

Zoya Shargatova, Deputy Chair of the Moscow
branch of YABLOKO and party activists Gleb Sitnikov, Zoya
Gulyaeva and Ilona Korovchenko, held banners "Seven
years after. Who is liable?" by Public Prosecutor
General’s office and the Federation Council. Another
banner “Torshin, how about the truth about Beslan?"
addressed Senator Alexander Torshin, head of the Parliamentary
Commission on investigation of the circumstances of the
tragedy. Police officers and representatives of the Federal
Security Service checked the documents of the activists
and took down their passport data, however did not interfere
with the picket...

A memory action devoted to the Beslan
tragedy also took place in St. Petersburg. The participants
of the rally lit 334 candles - one per each victim. The
candles were lined in the word "Beslan." The
action was held without any political symbols and slogans.

Environmental organisation North Caucasus
Environmental Watch with YABLOKO’s support is going
to start a law suit against PR technologists employed
by the Eurochim company (which has constructed and launched
oil shipment terminal in the resort city of Tuapse despite
loud public protests) and hold them answerable for libel...

A joint action by the Federation of Russian
Automobile Owners and YABLOKO [against use of flashing
lights at bureaucrats’ cars creating terrible traffic
jams in Moscow] began as usual at 8 a.m. [this August].
First everything was calm, as according to the law one-person
pickets do not require any permissions from the authorities...

Gleb Sitnikov, activist of the Youth YABLOKO
was arrested by police due to provocation from unidentified
persons when picketing in Moscow against preferences on
the Moscow roads given to bureaucrats’ cars when
all the traffic is stopped to give way to the cars of
the “VIPs’ cars” (the so-called anti-siren-lights
campaign)...

"Resignation of Vyacheslav Dudka,
Governor Tula Region, is connected with corruption scandals
around him and his people," said YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin.
"It was clear for me that Dudka would resign soon
after court acquitted Vladimir Timakov, MP of the Tula
City Duma [who was a defendant on a libel case for his
criticism of the Governor], on June 30," Mitrokhin
added.
Court found that Vladimir Timakov, YABLOKO’s MP
in the Tula City Duma was guilty of libel in November
2010. The court found that Timakov’s criticism of
the Governor for corruption was “libel”...

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses its sincere and deep regret in view of the fact
that Platon Lebedev [ex-head of Menatep imprisoned on
the YUKOS case] was not released on parole.

Courts in our country often apply release
on parole to killers and rapists who after their release
turn into serial pedophiles. However, when absolutely
non-dangerous for the citizens and publicly important
figures such as Platon Lebedev are concerned, than private
or group interests of the authorities prevail under the
mask of law. The leadership of the country did not take
any special decision on Lebedev’s release on parole
in an exceptional order which is not surprising in the
context of the political developments around Platon Lebedev
and Mikhail Khodorkovsky case...

Unfortunately all the loud statements
by President Medvedev on modernisation of judicial system
have remained unrealized. That is why the Russian citizens
do not believe in fair justice, moreover the society alienate
from the Russian state.

We have been thinking and still think
that Platon Lebedev and Mikhail Khodorkovsky must be released,
this would become an important and humanistic step and
at the same time would serve to improvement of our public
climate. We shall spare no effort for this...

...Dressed in black uniform and with police
batons the security resembled nazies. All the time the
activists reached some road the securities prohibited
them to use it. Soon it became clear that they received
an order to “teach them a lesson” so that
to make the environmentalists keep away from the Indokopas
company and “Putin’s Palace”. So the
activists had to make a very difficult three-hours march
through the forest via a mountain pass and past a canyon.
Such a trip endangered their lives, the activists were
all bruised and bleeding when late at night they managed
to get on the road by Praskeyevka village.

The actions by the security of the “Putin’s
Palace” were absolutely unlawful, moreover the security
on purpose endangered the lives of the environmentalists.
The police did not come to rescue despite of the fact
that the call made by the activists was registered by
the local police department...

On July 26, chemical fertilizers will
be delivered to bulk terminal in the centre of Tuapse,
Black Sea coast, so that to begin their exports already
in early August. The terminal is launched despite the
order of the President to hold public hearings and consultations
with environmental organisations. The YABLOKO party and
North Caucasus Environmental Watch are going to conduct
several actions in the city centre and by the terminal...

Actions on July 26 will be followed by
a mass-scale protest rally YABLOKO and environmentalists
are preparing now...

Today on July 26, local YABLOKO branch
in the town of Velsk, Arkhangelsk region, and the Vazhsky
Krai public movement conducted a picket in support of
Platon Lebedev, ex-head of the Menatep Group (the YUKOS
case). The Velsk City Court has begun examination of Lebedev’s
application on release on parole.

According to Valery Kvitkovsky, head of
the Velsk branch of YABLOKO, about 30 people were picketing
the court. People were holding placards “Freedom
to Platon Lebedev”, “No to Police State!”
and “Citizens of Velsk Support Platon Lebedev”...

YABLOKO and the Vazhsky Krai public movement
will conduct pickets in support of Platon Lebedev in the
town of Velsk (where he is serving his term of imprisonment)
on July 26-27. Platon Lebedev, ex-head of Menatep, who
had been sentenced to 13 years of prison camp in the YUKOS
case was convoyed to the prison camp Ni 14 under Velsk
in late June. Lebedev applied for release on parole, and
on June 26 the Velsk court have to examine his application.
YABLOKO insists that the court should take a positive
decision on the release of Platon Lebedev...

...In conducting a campaign in the Black
Sea coastal region to return public land, including beaches
and forest areas, to the people and to stop the construction
of oil shipment terminals, ELDR member party YABLOKO,
has been targeted by an unknown source which is calling
for the party to be put on a list of terrorist organisations
and for its activities to be prohibited.

This follows the arrest last month of
YABLOKO activists campaigning for better environmental
awareness and consideration at the Black Sea coast. Read
more.

The notion of wanting to label a political
party as being a terrorist organisation on the basis of
conducting a peaceful campaign that represents the views
of a number of citizens living in the area concerned is
very worrying and a clear infringement of human rights
and on the actions of YABLOKO as a political party. ELDR
deplores such attempts to limit the freedom of expression
of the Russian people and the underhand tactics used against
YABLOKO to halt the campaign.

In connection with the fact that hearings
on the application of [ex-YUKOS head] Platon Lebedev will
be held in the court of Velsk, Arkhangelsk region, on
July 26, the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO insists
that the court should take a positive decision [regarding
the release of Lebedev].

An extremely odious YUKOS case in which
Platon Lebedev was twice sentenced to imprisonment is
not only a subject to litigation in different courts,
but it has also been attracting the attention of many
ordinary people who are concerned about Russia's future.
It is impossible to create a modern country when redistribution
of property and criminal prosecution of businessmen has
turned into a norm. The YUKOS case is one of many, but
it is remarkable in its scope and broad media coverage
and public resonance.

Release of prisoners and re-examination
of the YUKOS case in courts, as well as other similar
cases of Russian businessmen will become an essential
and necessary step in Russia’s movement from the post-Soviet
authoritarian state towards normal policies and a European
style economy functioning in the interests of Russian
citizens...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
applied to Public Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to determine
the sources of financing of a black PR campaign launched
against YABLOKO and ecologists fighting against constructing
of oil shipment terminals in Novorossiysk and Tuapse,
the Black Sea coast. After loud public protests against
construction of hazardous facilities in the resort cities
and his meeting with environmentalists President Medvedev
ordered (on June 8) the regional authorities to conduct
consultations with public organisations and activists
Such a meeting was held in Krasnodar yesterday, on July
18. However, not all the environmentalists and representatives
of public organisations were allowed to be present. Thus,
according to a personal order of the anchor of the event,
well-known Russian journalists Vladimir Soloviyov, the
security did not allow Suren Gazaryan, activist of YABLOKO
and North Caucasus Environmental Watch to pass to the
premises were the even was held.
However, Gazaryan got hold of a document entitled “Action
Plan for Creation of Broad Public Resonance in Connection
with the First Public Consultations." According to
the document, the goal of the PR campaign is "to
achieve generally positive reaction from the Internet
community on the decision to launch the terminals in Tuapse
and Novorossiysk." The unknown PR technologists also
set up the task to "discredit environmentalists"
fighting against this project endangering the environment
in the region...

On July 19, 2011, the Bashkirian regional
branch of the YABLOKO party, the Committee of Civil Control
of the Republic of Bashkiria and “Human Rights,
Information and Culture” civil foundation will conduct
a joint picket in defence of Article 19 of the Russian
Constitution guaranteeing protection of human rights in
Russia...

On July 14 YABLOKO leaders meet with members
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Rapporteurs on the monitoring of Russia, Mr Andreas Gross
and Mr Gyorgy Frunda, and Ms. Agnieszka Nachilo, Deputy
Head of the Secretariat of the Monitoring Committee. The
rapporteurs are preparing a report on the monitoring of
Russia's obligations and commitments entered upon accession
to the Council of Europe for the presentation in the Parliamentary
Assembly...

On July 13 activists of the Youth Yabloko
in different Russian cities conducted a solidarity action
with their young colleagues from Ekaterinburg and Moscow
who had been detained for anti-government slogans done
in chalk on the pavement...

Activists of the Chelyabinsk Youth Yabloko
conducted an action by the ruling United Russia’s
office. Young Yabloko activists wrote in chalk on the
pavement in front of the ruling party’s office slogans
"This government must go," "Go away!"
and "This government does not need us"...

Today police arrested activists of the
Youth YABLOKO – Kirill Gontcharov, Gleb Sitnikov
and Sofia Rusova – for writing “This government
should resign!” in front of the United Russia’s
party office in the center of Moscow...
Today’s action by the United Russia office was conducted
in solidarity with the activists of the Youth YABLOKO
branch in the Sverdlovsk region – Anastasya Zheltisheva
and Eugeni Mezentsev - who stood before court today for
writing the same slogan during a concert organised by
United Russia in Ekaterinburg...
Actions of solidarity are held today by United Russia’s
offices in other cities: St.Petersburg, Penza, Chelyabinsk
and Kostroma.

On July 11, 2011, a mass protest rally
in protection of human rights and demanding dismissal
of the Eugeny Ulasevich, deputy head of the city administration,
was held in Sterlitamak, Bashkiria, despite the ban of
the local authorities. One of the organizers of the rally
was Damir Garifullin, leader of the Sterlitamak branch
of YABLOKO. The rally brought together about seven hundred
people.

The city authorities tried to move the
rally from the walls of the administration building, however,
the indignant citizens stayed at by the administration.
The police tried to detain Damir Garifullin, however the
participants of the rally interfered and did not allow
the police to detain him...

YABLOKO’s rally in Aksay, the Rostov region,
was conducted despite counteraction of the authorities.

Before the action the police notified
the organizers of the rally about administration’s ban
on the rally, the police told that all the participants
would be detained. “This is completely unlawful. The Adminstration
has no right to ban the rally. The authorities can only
offer a different place for conducting the action,” YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin said.

Also someone threw leaflets that people
are prohibited to come to the park where the rally had
to due to “sanitary measures against insects and hazardous
effect of this pharmaceuticals on people”. This was done
in the morning on the threashold of the rally. In spite
f all of this the rally gathered about 100 people...

Press conference of Russia’s Ombudsman
Vladimir Lukin to take place in Moscow, on July 12. The
topic of the press-conference is “Violation of Russian
citizens’ rights in 2011: the most frequent complaints”.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian
Federation ruled that the laws for the use of a proportional
electoral system for municipal elections in small rural
communities do not comply with the Constitution of the
Russian Federation. The Constitutional Court issued such
a decision after receiving a complaint from Vladimir Lukin,
Russia’s Ombudsman and one of the founders of the
YABLOKO party. Lukin applied to the Constitutional Court
in defence of two residents of the Chelyabinsk region,
who were taking part in the elections to the municipal
council of their rural settlement. The
Electoral Commission refused to register these independent
candidates referring to the proportional system (party
lists only) set for this settlement in the region...

..."The facts listed confirm the
need to organize independent and competent medical services
for inmates of penitentiary facilities. Such services
cannot be exclusively controlled by the Federal Penitentiary
Service and must also be subordinated to the Health Ministry,"
it says.

"It is necessary to create a mechanism
of independent medical examinations of the inmates' condition
on the basis of proposals provided by the Office of the
Moscow Human Rights Commissioner, jointly with the City
Public Supervisory Commission," the report says...

Eight prison guards severely beat lawyer
Sergei Magnitsky shortly before his 2009 death in pretrial
detention, an activist said Tuesday, providing a new twist
to allegations that Magnitsky had been tortured in prison.
An account of the beating is included in a 40-page report
on Magnitsky's death that the Kremlin's human rights council
presented to President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday, said
Valery Borshchyov, who headed an independent investigation
into the death that formed the basis for the report.

The report also lays blame on prison hospital
staff and the investigators who jailed Magnitsky for his
death.

"Having interviewed the prison doctors
and staff, we came to the conclusion that Magnitsky, who
was already in bad condition, was beaten in a separate
cell," Borshchyov said by telephone...

A meeting of Presidential Council on Human
Rights and Civil Society Development will take place in
Stavropol today. The President will receive a report on
the investigation of the circumstances of death in prison
of Sergei Magnitsky, lawyer of Hermitage Capital Foundation.
Valery Borschyov, YABLOKO’s Bureau member and Chair
of the Permanent Chamber on Human Rights of the Political
Consultative Council under President of Russia, conducted
independent investigation of the death of Sergei Magnitsky
and participated in the preparation of the report...

According to Borschyov, death rate in
Moscow remand prisons has risen by 12 percent for the
past year. "Certainly, a political will is required
so that to bring medical service in prisons out of the
Federal Penitentiary Service jurisdiction. I am sure that
our President will read our report very carefully. The
authorities have underestimated the position of the European
community, and the resolution on the case by the Parliament
of the Netherlands will be followed by corresponding resolutions
from parliaments of other countries,” he added...

...Last
week, a handful of environmentalists and political opposition
party members made their way to the site of Putin’s
alleged fairytale home to check out the mysterious place
and assess its environmental impact.

In January, the FRANCE 24 Observer’s website published
an article on the controversy triggered by photos published
on the internet of Putin’s seaside palace near the
southern town Paraskoveevka, on the Black Sea. The site
also published comments made by Sergei Kolesnikov, a Russian
businessman who had been involved in the building’s
construction, and who maintained that the prime minister
was its true owner. Although officially classified as
a centre to be used for medical care, Kolesnikov was able
to use a paper trail detailing the building’s financing
to link it to Putin...

...Our guys were put into a jail cell
in the police station 3 by 3 meters large, where about
20 people had already been crammed along with them. People
were standing, squatting or lying close to each other
on the dirty cement floor. One of them - a homeless person
– obviously had tuberculosis. In this cell the guys were
kept before sending them to court: Goncharov for nine
hours and Menzheritsky for 14 hours...

...The convicts were housed in a temporary
detention facility, located in the same police building
in Gelenzhik. Menzheritsky was kept cell No 13. The cell
was about 16 square meters. m, and was designed for seven,
but the police kept 18 people there. The cops did not
try to hide the fact that the temporary detention prison
had several vacant cells. They tormented 18 people on
purpose, so that, according to the police officers, "they
would try to avoid getting there in the future”. People
had to queue so that to sleep in turn on a board couch
(as there were no separate beds and linen)...

YABLOKO’S leader Sergei Mitrokhin
called the statement made by Alexander Fedulov, head of
the Kursk regional branch of YABLOKO, on the need of repressive
measures against the LGBT community "unacceptable
for a member of the party."

"Fedulov expressed his personal opinion
which contradicts the basic principles and values of the
YABLOKO party,” Mitrokhin said. “ In a civilized
state civil rights must be respected regardless of ethnicity,
social class and sexual orientation," he added...

Press-conference "Persecution of
Political Opposition with the Help of the Criminal Code"
will be held in the Independent Press Centre, Moscow,
July 7, at 2:00 p.m.

The following speakers will participate
in the press-conference: Andrei Babushkin, Chair of the
For the Civil Rights Committee, Zoya Svetlova, member
of Public Observation Commission, Anna Karyetnikova, member
of Public Observation Commission, and Irina Fedotova,
author of the book on lawyer Stanislav Markelov murdered
in Moscow in 2009. Presentation of the report “Too
loose interpretation of Articles 282, 280 and 205-2 of
the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation” will
also take place.

Today young activists from the Youth YABLOKO
conducted a serious a one-person pickets against adoption
of a draft law (submitted by Senator Alexander Torshin)
envisaging that Russia should not implement the decisions
of the European Court of Human Rights. The State Duma
had been planning to adopt the draft law in the first
reading but due to a heated public discussion around the
draft law decided to postpone the discussion of the issue...

Kirill Gontcharov, leader of the Moscow
Youth YABLOKO (LI full member), and environmentalist Sergei
Menzhitsky were sentenced to five days of imprisonment
for alleged “physical resistance to police orders”.
They were detained in Divnomorskoye village at the Black
Sea, while protesting against unlawful and illegal construction
of cottages in national parks, which involved turning
public beaches and territories into top officials' private
property. The YABLOKO action, titled “All-Russia
Protest Against the Stolen Black Sea Coast”, was
launched on 24 June...

On July 30 Public Prosecutor
dismissed his charges against YABLOKO’s MP in the
Tula parliament Vladimir Timakov. Public Prosecutor asked
to close the case due to for absence of elements of crime
in the act after getting the results of a linguistic expertise.
This means that the sentence of the court of the first
instance recognising Timakov guilty of libel for his criticism
of the Governor of the Tula Region will be cancelled.
Over two yeas ago Vyacheslav Dudka, Governor of the Tula
Region, started litigation against YABLOKO’s MP
in the Tula City Parliament Vladimir Timakov for the criticism
of the latter of the Governor’s performance accusing
Timakov of libel. In the first civil process the Governor
won 1.5 mln roubles of “moral damage” from
Timakov and than tried to persecute the MP in the criminal
proceedings which could have led to deprivation of Timakov
of his deputy’s mandate...

The YABLOKO party demands that Mr.Torshin’s
draft bills limiting the jurisdiction of the European
Court of Human Rights should be either revoked by the
author or declined by the State Duma.
A ban for the Russian judges to apply the decisions of
the European Court without their confirmation by the Constitutional
Court will lead to even greater degradation of the Russian
judicial system. The Constitutional Court can not count
on any trust from the Russian citizens after the statements
servile to the executive authority and voiced by its Chair
Valery Zorkin.
The citizens of Russia who became victims of unjust court
consider the European Court as the last hope to achieve
justice...

Journalist and human rights activist Vladimir
Grechaninov saw his car explode in the North-East of Moscow
at 4 a.m. today. According to preliminary
information, the police qualified this crime as arson,
and the journalists connected this accident with his professional
activities. Fortunately Grechaninov
was not affected. Grechaninov connects this either with
his professional activities or with the activities of
his spouse Marina Verigina...

Kirill Gontcharov, leader
of the Moscow Youth YABLOKO, and environmentalist Sergei
Menzhitsky were sentenced to five days of imprisonment
for alleged “physical resistance to police orders”.
They were detained in Divnomorskoye village at the Black
Sea.

On June 24 Kirill Gontcharov, leader of
the Moscow Youth YABLOKO and environmentalists Sergei
Menzhitsky and Konstantin Andramonov were detained in
Divnomorskoye village at the Black Sea. YABLOKO had launched
an action “All-Russia Protest Against the Stolen
Black Sea Coast” protesting against unlawful and
illegal construction of cottages (especially for top officials)
in the national parks and turning of public beaches and
territories into their private beaches and territories.

On June 25 the activists planned to conduct
a rally by “Putin’s dacha” (“Putin’s
country cottage”). And on June 24 they inspected
the national park of the relict Pitsunda pine (as it has
been detected previously that part of the relict trees
were cut for construction of the Governor’s residence)...

On Friday, July 1, the Moscow Youth YABLOKO
organisation will hold a series of one persons pickets
by the State Duma against adoption of the draft law envisaging
overriding ruling of the European Court.

Journalist and human rights activist Vladimir
Grechaninov saw his car explode in the North-East of Moscow
at 4 a.m. today. According to preliminary
information, the police qualified this crime as arson,
and the journalists connected this accident with his professional
activities. Fortunately Grechaninov
was not affected. Grechaninov connects this either with
his professional activities or with the activities of
his spouse Marina Verigina...

"I warmly welcome the acquittal of
Oleg Orlov. It is a step in the direction of ensuring
respect for the rule of law and a sign that Russian courts
are willing and able to interpret the right to freedom
of expression in accordance with the European Convention
on Human Rights. However, we should not forget that the
circumstances of the killing of Natalia Estemirova have
not yet been elucidated, and that human rights defenders
in Chechnya continue to be threatened and hindered in
exercising their activities." - Mailis Reps (Estonia,
ALDE), the rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary
Assembly (PACE) on the situation of human rights defenders.

The European Liberal Democrat
and Reform Party Council, convening in Dresden, Germany,
unanimously voted for the draft resolution submitted by
the YABLOKO party in support of Oleg Orlov, head of the
Memorial human rights centre and winner of the European
Parliament's Sakharov Prize “For the Freedom of
Thought”.

European liberals expressed their deep
concern with the trials and harassments against Oleg Orlov
initiated by leader of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov for the
criticism of the Chechen authorities in view of investigation
of the murder in Chechnya of renowned human rights activist
Natalya Estemirova. The resolution of ELDR Council stressed
that persecution of Oleg Orlov was “clearly politically
motivated, raised serious questions on the functioning
of the Russian judicial system, and demonstrated the desire
of the Chechen authorities to prevent Orlov voicing his
opinion”.

ELDR called the Russian authorities to
“stop trials and harassments against Oleg Orlov
and other human rights defenders”, “properly
investigate the murder of Natalya Estemirova and bring
the perpetrators to justice”...

The European Liberal Democrat and Reform
Party Council, convening in Dresden, Germany on 20 May
2011:

Notes with deep concern:

- Reports on political reprisals against
Oleg Orlov, Russian human rights activist, winner of the
European Parliament's Sakharov Prize and Chair of the
"Memorial" Human Rights Centre, for voicing
criticism of Chechen authorities about the investigation
into the murder of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova
in 2009;
- That trials initiated by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov,
the latest of which is set to resume in June, are clearly
politically motivated, raise serious questions on the
functioning of the Russian judicial system, and demonstrate
the desire of the Chechen authorities to prevent Orlov
voicing his opinion.

Calls upon Russian authorities to:

- Stop trials and harassments against
Oleg Orlov and other human rights defenders and properly
investigate such attacks and trials;
- Properly investigate the murder of Natalya Estemirova
and bring the perpetrators to justice.

...This report contains the situation
analysis of human rights violations in the RD and the
authorities’ attempts to achieve the rule of law
and consolidation of the society. The report consists
of various parts...

The main points of the political programme
of Magomedov (new President of the RD since 2010) are
the following: modernization of economy, change of the
methods regarding the fight against terrorism, rule of
law. The main obstacles are: the high level of corruption,
undeveloped, subsidized economy, unemployment, poverty,
terrorism, instability in the region. New policy is not
supported and welcomed by both sides: armed militants
continue their activity, and state defense and law enforcement
agencies do not follow the rule of law and legal order...

It is with dismay we have learned of
the forthcoming criminal trial against Oleg Orlov, head
of Memorial and 2009 laureate of the European Parliament's
Sakharov Prize. This trial, scheduled for 17 May and initiated
by the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, is clearly politically
motivated and raises serious questions on the functioning
of the Russian judicial system.

A human rights community
has been created in the Live Journal (at pravotambov.livejournal.com)
on the initiative of the Tambov branch of YABLOKO. YABLOKO
is aiming to create an area for interaction between citizens,
human rights activists and human rights organisations
in Tambov and reflect their activities...

LI full member party Yabloko has expressed
great concerns over the recent charges made against Russian
Human Rights Activist Oleg Orlov due to his comments that
the Moscow-backed President of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov,
is politically responsible for the murder of fellow human
rights activist Natalya Estemirova in July 2009. According
to Yabloko leader, Sergei Mitrokhin: ““Ramzan
Kadyrov's case is a special case even for our generally
low political culture. Even in our conditions of extreme
restrictions on freedom of speech and general judicial
arbitrariness, it never occurred to anyone to make allegations
of political responsibility a subject of a law suit…Russia's
policies on Chechnya have to be changed sooner or later.
The carte blanche to Ramzan Kadyrov and the people around
him is not infinite. We urge the Russian leadership to
realize this and change the policies to a more responsible
approach. And we repeat: persecution of Oleg Orlov is
inadmissible.” Mr. Orlov is the head of the Russian
civil rights defence organization Memorial, which won
the EU's 2009 Sakharov Prize for Freedom and thought.

The ELDR Party and our member, Yabloko,
have expressed concern about the political reprisals made
against Oleg Orlov human rights activist and former winner
of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize (honouring
the defence of human rights and freedom of thought), and
current chair of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial"
for voicing criticism about the investigation into the
murder of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova in
2009...

The Political Committee of
the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO expresses
its indignation in view of political reprisals against
human rights activist and Chair of the Memorial human
rights centre Oleg Orlov.

Orlov’s statement on political responsibility
of [the head of Chechnya] Ramzan Kadyrov for the murder
of [human rights activist] Natalya Estemirova can not
form grounds for any presecution, either in the civil
or moreover in the criminal suit...

A motor rally against cement
elevator took place in Pechatniki district, Moscow. The
race was conducted by local residents and YABLOKO’s
activists led by party leader Sergei Mitrokhin. Activists
in cars with stickers “Stop Cement in Pechatniki!”
collected signatures against a cement facility in a residential
district.

The South Port cement elevator
by the Eurocement company is situated on the bank of the
Moskva River in close proximity to blocks of flats. The
decision to close the facility was adopted in 2003, when
he the draft plan of the district development was developed,
repeated decisions were passed in 2005 and 2007. However,
the facility has never stopped...

In the evening April 16 neo-Nazis
attacked Anatoly Rabinovich, YABLOKO’s Bureau member
and President of the Inter-Regional Union of those who
was brought up in orphanages.

Rabinovich was attacked when he was going
back home from the Moscow Conference of YABLOKO. Coming
out of the Barrikadnaya metro station and walking to Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya
street he walked away from a group of not sober young
men. Several seconds later one of the men hit Rabinovish
from behind. Rabinovich tried to return to the metro station
hoping to get help from police. However, neo-Nazis were
chasing him striking blows...

...Earlier this week Sergei Mitrokhin,
leader of ELDR member party, Yabloko, was arrested and
detained by police for taking part in a protest to demand
the closure of a cement plant in the Pechatniki district
of Moscow. The plant is situated in close proximity to
a residential area and is considered a health concern
for local residents.

Yabloko applied for permission to conduct
a peaceful protest at the plant, but the local authorities
delayed, beyond the legal limit, a response to the application
and even though permission was eventually granted, Yabloko
activists were prevented from holding their protest and
Mitrokhin was arrested by police...

European Liberal Democrats are the strongest
supporters of human rights and the rule of law and consider
these values to be fundamental to the future relationship
between the EU and Russia. Stopping peaceful demonstrations
contravenes an essential human right and this is a worrying
sign, particularly in view of upcoming parliamentary elections
to be held in Russia later this year.

Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of LI full member
YABLOKO, was arrested at a peaceful picket in Moscow yesterday
(13 April). Yabloko activists were demonstrating against
a cement plant, demanding the authorities to close it
down, as it poses a health risk to nearby residents. Despite
YABLOKO having applied for permission to picket, police
arrived at the scene claiming that YABLOKO lacked a valid
permission. Following his arrest, Mr Mitrohkin was detained
for more than 3 hours. Commenting on the events to LI
news, Mitrohkin says: 'Such detentions of people coming
to legal and permitted rallies and pickets have already
formed a dangerous trend in Russia: we often witness unmotivated
police violence in breaking peaceful rallies or pickets,
filing of criminal cases against people who dare to criticise
the governments or administrations or defend their civil
rights. All this means further curbing of the freedom
of speech and freedom of assembly in contrast to loud
statements made by Russian top officials.' Sergei Mitrokhin
now has to appear in court accused of participating in
an unsanctioned picket.

Activists of the St. Petersburg
Youth branch of YABLOKO held a flashmob in front of the
Federal Security Service (FSB) office in St. Petersburg.
The action was conducted in response to the recent statements
by the representatives of the FSB on the need to ban Gmail,
Hotmail and Skype in Russia.

Several activists organized a Skype-conference
directly under the windows of the Federal Security Service.
The activists held laptops connected to the Internet and
also held inscriptions "The threat to Russian security"
on their backs. The participants of the Skype-conference
discussed the recent statement by the FSB and came to
a conclusion that the idea to ban Skype, Gmail and Hotmail
was "stupid and useless". Chair St. Petersburg
Youth Yabloko Alexander Gudimov also held a banner "Freedom
can not be banned”...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin was detained by police at a picket by the administration
of one of the South-Eastern District of Moscow. The picketers
demanded to close a cement plant in Pechatniki district.
The plant is situated by the Moskva-River embankment.
Local residents say the district has been growing and
new blocks of flats have been built already very close
to the functioning plant. “We breathe in the cement
power,” they say.

In 2003 the plan of the district development
envisaged a park that had to be made on the place of the
plant which had to be moved to an industrial zone. However,
the plant is still functioning in the residential district.
YABLOKO’s activists held placards demanding to close
the plant.

In 20 minutes police arrived and demanded
the picketers to leave the place. Also the police carefully
studied the allowance obtained for the picket from the
local authorities in accordance with the law...

Round table “Political and Economic
Development of the Northern Caucasus: Diagnosis and Forecast”
took place in YABLOKO. Galina Mikhalyova, Executive Secretary
of YABLOKO’s Political Committee, noted opening
the discussion that it was very important for the party
to conduct such a discussion with experts so that to develop
an alternative policies for the Caucasus...

Dramatic political events have been taking
place in the world, North Africa and the Middle East in
the recent months. Sudan split into two parts as a result
of 20 years of a bloody war. Unprecedented for the Arab
world democratic revolution won in Tunisia. Resulting
from a further spread of public disturbances, one of the
long living authoritarian regimes - the regime of President
Hosni Mubarak – collapsed in the neighbouring Egypt.
Demonstrations of protest have been continuously erupting
in the neighbouring North African and the Gulf states:
Algeria, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar,
Oman and Djibouti...

LI full member YABLOKO is outraged by
the treatment of its activists in the North Caucasus,
who were unlawfully detained on 28 February while protesting
against the deforestation of a public area of protected
trees, where recreational cottages have been built for
the Governor of Krasnodar Krai. Last week, three of the
jailed activists went on a hunger strike to protest the
unjust verdict of imprisonment and the dire conditions
of detention. YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin said that
the cells in which the detainees were held were unlit
and had poor sanitary facilities. He further commented:
'The police broke not only Russian law, but also inner
normative acts of the interior, protecting unlawfully
constructed cottages. Moreover the police actions against
peaceful citizens were tough and violent.' YABLOKO has
conducted numerous actions of support and forwarded letters
to the Public Prosecutor and the Interior Minister demanding
them to investigate the actions of the police and the
regional authorities, but has yet to receive a response.
The activists have now been released...

Press-conference of the ecologists who
served their imprisonment sentences in Tuapse prison for
conducting a public inspection of the country cottage
of Governor of Kransodar Area Alexander Tkacyov will be
held in YABLOKO’s office tomorrow on March 10. “The
Krasnodar prisoners of conscience” – Eugeny
Vitushko, leader of the Tuapse YABLOKO and Suren Gazaryan,
member of YABLOKO, will tell about the unlawful construction
of a recreation complex for Governor Tkachoyv in the relict
pin forest protected by the state, as well as other complexes
and palaces unlawfully constructed at the Black Sea coast
of the Krasnodar Area...

...According to Achilov, virtually all
the prisoners rights were violated in this prison: right
to a walk, right to have bedclothes, to use toilet, to
receive parcels from families and so on. The night of
their arrest they were not even allowed to have water
and call a doctor. The cells, according to Achilov, "remind
of Inquisition dungeons”, they are dark, without
artificial or natural light, the prisoners are not allowed
to use toilet even in the morning, food is disgusting
(despite statements made [by the authorities] that RUR
400 [USD 13] are allotted for maintenance of each prisoner
per day). Now, according to Achilov, Dmitry Shevchenko
is running high temperature (38 degrees), he is coughing
typically of pneumonia, and Gazaryan has approximately
the same high temperature too. Protesting against such
conditions of detention and unjust verdict of imprisonment
Gazaryan, Shevchenko and Vitishko went on a hunger strike;
whereas there is no doctor in this jail...

When Boris Nemtsov, Ilya Yashin and Konstantine
Kosyakin were detained at Triumphalnaya square in Moscow
on New Year's Eve, and court sentenced them to an unlawful
arrest from 5 to 15 days, a huge number of people spoke
in their defence, whereas YABLOKO’s leaders were
among the first to protest against this arrest...

However, the conditions in which my friends
and colleagues from YABLOKO held in the Tuapse jail are
many times worse and more humiliating than those the aforementioned
"Moscow prisoners" were in. But no one hurries
to recognise Gazaryan, or Shevchenko, or Vitishko a "prisoner
of conscience." No prominent public or political
figures speak in their defence. Their arrest does not
outrage U.S. senators and European parliamentarians. Finally,
we do not hear anything about public speeches by Nemtsov
or Yashin on this topic. Maybe I have missed something.
Or maybe they are silent because its will be improper
after this to habitually claim that YABLOKO in contrast
to them is “not an opposition”?..

The YABLOKO party has once forwarded a
letter to President Medvedev calling him to take under
his personal control the investigation of the crimes by
St.Peterburg riot police in Noviye Aldany village, Chechnya.
YABLOKO also asks the President to transfer the case from
the republic to the federal investigators...

...On February 4 there was silence. The
residents of the village got out of the basements and
cells, began repairing their roofs, made reserves of water
and cleaned the yards. On February 5, a large group of
soldiers from St. Petersburg riot police (OMON) entered
Noviye Aldy. For several hours, they were firing and robbing
the houses, shotting the civilians and raping women. By
evening, 114 residents of the village were killed or were
missing. On the following days the residents buried 82
corpses. Among the dead there were no militants –
all were civilians: old people, disabled persons and women
...

On the application filed by several of
the village in the European Court of Human Rights, the
Court found the Russian Federation guilty in the crime...

Over 30,000 votes in favour of dismissal
of St.Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko were collected
witnin the framework of the campaign launched by St.Petersburg
YABLOKO at
www.piter-bez-matvienko.ru,

“We, citizens of St.Petersburg,
demand a dismissal of Governor Valentina Matviyenko: for
several years in power we were demonstrated that the policies
of the city administration clash with the interest of
the residents of the city and represent a constant violation
of our rights,” runs the statement signed by the
residents of the city...

Following Sergei Mitrokhin’s visit
to Volgograd in October 2010, the Volgograd regional branch
of YABLOKO and administration of Volgograd signed a cooperation
agreement. The goal of the joint
work is “development of civil initiatives for efficient
socio-economic and socio-political development of Volgograd,
raising of the role of non-parliamentary political parties
in the functioning of local self-government bodies”.

The parties of the agreement will joint
their efforts in drawing public attention and involving
of the population of the city to the solution of the environmental
problems, as well as ecological education, development
of programmes for improvement of public territories, protection
of environment, development of the city infrastructure
and mass involvement of the citizens in planting trees
in the city parks, gardens and streets...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin,
member of YABLOKO’s Bureau Valery Borschov and activists
of the Moscow branch of the party participated in a march
and a rally in memory of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya
Baburova.

Several hundreds people marched along
the Tverskoy Boulevard to the Novopushkinsky Garden in
the centre of Moscow. The participants held portraits
of the murdered antifascists and journalists. A short
rally took place in the Novopushkinsky Garden. People
spoke about the neonazists’ crimes performed at
the negligence of the authorities. One of the last speeches
by Stanislav Markeov recorded shortly before his death
was demonstrated on one of the large monitors...

Leader of the YABLOKO party Sergei Mitrokhin
and members of YABLOKO’s Political Committee Grigory
Yavlinsky and Mikhail Amosov, as well as leaders and activists
of the Moscow YABLOKO laid flowers to the place of murder
of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya
Baburova in the centre of Moscow at Prechistenka street.
Later today (at 8 p.m.) Sergei Mitrokhin will participate
in the memorial rally organised by the Committee of January
19. The rally will take place in the Novopushkinsky garden.
Markelov and Baburova were murdered in Moscow in plain
daylight on January 19, 2009, shot in the head by a gunman.
According to the investigators, the crime was performed
by neonazies...

Deputy head of the Bashkirian branch of
YABLOKO and human rights activist Damir Garifullin was
severely beaten on January 17, 2010. Damir is in hospital
now with a stab wound in the chest and multiple injuries...
Naumkin also said that the investigators had several versions,
as Damir was active in all the areas where Bashkirian
branch of YABLOKO was working, and different people from
the local government and self-government bodies and the
law enforcement serving them expressed their dissatisfaction
with Damir...

Tomorrow on January 19 (at 14-30) the
leader and activists of the YABLOKO party will lay flowers
to the place at Prechistenka street where lawyer Stanislav
Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova were killed.

Later on the same day (20-00) Sergei Mitrokhin
will participate in the memorial rally organised by the
Committee of January 19. The rally will take place in
the Novopushkinsky garden...

Liberals in Europe and worldwide have
closed ranks to make a strong call upon the Belarusian
government to release all journalists, opposition candidates
and civil society representatives who face continued detention.
For liberal parties and their representatives in the European
and national parliaments the brutal repression of the
peaceful demonstrations following the presidential elections
on 19 December 2010 is completely unacceptable...

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
condemns the actions by the authorities instigating the
unjust rulings by the courts on holding Boris Nemtsov
and other oppositional politicians (who participated in
a permitted action on December 31) under arrest for many
days. These decisions are unlawful
and politically biased, and represent a disgrace to the
police that fabricated the evidence as well as the courts
of the first instance that went on a leash of the police.

This constitutes another attempt of ‘tightening
up the screws’ in the very beginning of 2011 which
demonstrates growth of panic in the Russian government
resulting in political inadequacy. We
demand that President Medvedev must adopt measures required
for immediate release of all the detained and taking under
control the Moscow police which has been discrediting
the state power in the eyes of the Russian citizens and
the world community...

The YABLOKO party demands from Byelorussian
President Alexander Lukashenko to release all the detained
in Minsk on December 19-20, 2010.

In its statement YABLOKO characterized
presidential elections in Belarus as a political farce
which had ended by demonstrative physical violence over
thousands of people who had publically voiced their disagreement
with the official results of the voting.

YABLOKO expressed much concern about the
fate of those held arrested despite serious threat to
their health. “We are calling you to maintain an
absolutely different policy marked by releasing detained
Russian citizens on December 29,” runs YABLOKO’s
statement...

Press Release, December 27, 2010One of the leaders of the oppositional
YABLOKO party Sergei Ivanenko gave the following commentaty
to the Interfax agency on the guilty verdict to Mikhail
Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. “The guilty verdict
is logical for the system we have in Russia at present”.
“This verdict demonstrates
that there are no discrepancies in the ruling tandem.
The bureaucratic, authoritarian and punitive system is
maintained in our country,” said Ivanenko. “The
Khodorkovsky case is not only a political case, it shows
that the discrepancy between the reality and the decisions
made by the authorities has become increasingly obvious
to most of the people,” he added.

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
told Interfax, "It looks like the verdict will be
obviously unjust. Any guilt on such a charge is absurd
in itself. It is unclear how YUKOS could steal oil from
itself". "The first sentence
Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev have been serving
demonstrated some attempt to display at least a facade
of justice, however, this was completely abolished in
the second trial. It has already turned from selective
application of justice into a means of reprisal,”
Mitrokhin noted.

Picket for peace between nations and ethnic
groups was conducted in the centre of Moscow on December
20. The action was organised by the YABLOKO party in protest
against multiethnic clashes in Moscow. The participants
of the actions held placards “Let’s Preserve
Peace between Nations!”, “Russia is a Homeland
for 182 Ethnic Groups!”, “Let’s Stop
Violence!”, “Feebleness of the Government
[in opposing ethnic hatred] Leads to Public Violence!”,
“Feud between Nations Leads to Russia’s Collapse!”
The activists were joined by passer-bys. Despite of their
true ethnic background, the activists held signs with
the names of the Northern Caucasus nationalities and ethnic
groups: “I am an Ossetian”, “I am a
Darginian”, “I am a Lezginian”, etc.
Police attempted to stop the action...

The regional branch of the YABLOKO party
in Moscow states that large-scale nationalist clashes
in the capital be a serious threat to the country's existence.
We consider the authorities' actions against the organisers
and the participants of the clashes be inadequate to threat
they pose...

An explanation lies either in extremely
low professionalism of the police heads or their sympathy
for the nationalists and their slogans, or even in both
the reasons. If the authorities do not file criminal cases
on "inciting of ethnic hatred" and "organisation
of mass disorders", then there are grounds to speak
about the collusion of the authorities and the nationalists.
The authorities often see the nationalists
as their allies. We are confident that among those who
were engaged in the clashes in the center of Moscow there
were representatives of nationalistically minded groups
of football fans who attacked the defenders of Khimki
forest. We know about the connection between these groups
with pro-Kremlin youth movements, their creators and tutors...

On Wednesday, December 15, on the Journalists
Memorial Day, the YABLOKO party conducted a memorial action
paying tribute to murdered journalists. YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin and head of YABLOKO’s Gender
faction Galina Mikhalyova also participated in the picketing.
The action took place by the Griboyedov monument at Chistiye
Prudy. YABLOKO’s activists held photographs of murdered
journalists with the dates when they were killed and placards
“Univestogated murders = a disgrace for the state!”
and “No one brought to account?” showing that
the murders have been still uninvestigated. The murderers
of P.Khlebnikov (The Forbes), I.Domnikov, Yu.Schekochikhin,
A.Politkovskaya (Novaya Gazeta), A.Sidorov, V.Ivanov (Toliattinskoye
Obozreniye) E.Markevich (Noviy Ref), Ya.Yaroshenko (Korruptzia
I Prestupnost), V.Krivosheyev (Komsomolskaya Pravda, Lipetsk),
Larissa Yudina (Sovietskaya Kalmykia) and many other have
not been found...

On Wednesday, December 15, the YABLOKO
party will conduct a memorial action paying tribute to
murdered journalists. The picket will take place on the
Journalists Memorial Day devoted to journalists who were
killed in the line of their duty and conducted by the
Russian Journalists’ Union. The action will take
place by the Griboyedov monument at Chiastiye Prudy. YABLOKO’s
activists will hold photographs of murdered journalists
with the dates when they were killed. The activists will
also hold a banner with a question “No one brought
to account?” against a background of photos of the
journalists whose murders have been still uninvestigated.
Thus the murderers of P.Khlebnikov (The Forbes), I.Domnikov,
Yu.Schekochikhin, A.Politkovskaya (Novaya Gazeta), A.Sidorov,
V.Ivanov (Toliattinskoye Obozreniye) E.Markevich (Noviy
Ref), Ya.Yaroshenko (Korruptzia I Prestupnost), V.Krivosheyev
(Komsomolskaya Pravda, Lipetsk), Larissa Yudina (Sovietskaya
Kalmykia) and many other. The activists will light candles
in memory of the killed journalists...

YABLOKO (LI full member) is a party which
advocates the end of discrimination of all forms of human
rights abuse. The YABLOKO Human Rights activists have
conducted a serious of rallies to end discrimination and
protect human rights in Russia. Activists from YABLOKO's
Gender faction led a parade to denounce violence against
women on the basis of gender equality. YABLOKO is the
only Russian party which joined the UN action “The
16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence” and
strongly advocates women's rights. Moreover, YABLOKO expressed
its concern on the discrimination against AIDS patients
by participating in the Red Ribbon international action
for the World AIDS Day on 1 December. YABLOKO believes
that the state should apply maximum efforts so that people
with AIDS could get the much needed assistance they need
and that society would stop treating them as outcasts.
“The state should restore order here. It should
extend a helping hand to the sick people and provide treatment
to them. All the mobbing which such people often have
to confront should be stopped”, said Sergei Mitrokhin,
Chairman of the YABLOKO party.

Leader of St.Petersburg YABLOKO welcomed
the proposal by St.Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko
to search for a new site for construction of Gazprom’s
skyscraper. According to Reznik, such a decision by the
Governor results from long-term fight by the defenders
of the historical centre of the city and the dialogue
between the Governor and architects and historians with
has finally begun...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
expressed his disappointment with Presidential Address
to the Russian parliament, as Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev virtually failed to propose any measures in the
field of political reform. “He did not say a word
about the “glorified” United Russia party
and nothing was proposed in the field of political reform,
however, in an earlier statement the President had noted
that without such a reform we would not be able to overcome
the signs stagnation,” Mitrokhin said. “Only
cosmetic changes has taken place; whereas inequality of
the parties that will run in the parliamentary elections
has been maintained. In addition, the past regional and
municipal elections demonstrated that election fraud did
not reduce at all,” he noted...

Yesterday night Tula Court passed a judgment
which proclaimed deputy of the Tula City Duma from the
YABLOKO party journalist Vladimir Timakov guilty of libel
against Governor of the Tula region. Such
a judgment on Timakov was made as he had laid the blame
for the growth of corruption in the Tula region on Governor
Dudka as the top official of the region. Timakov had explained
his opinion by growth of corruption cases against top
regional and municipal officials.

The court of the first instance had already
obliged Vladimir Timakov to pay to the Governor RUR 1.5
million (approx. USD 500,000) as a compensation of moral
damage. Unfortunately yesterday’s decision of the
judge did not come as a surprise. The Tula regional branch
of YABLOKO considers the guilty verdict [against Timakov]
as another confirmation that independent judicial system
is lacking in Russia and in the Tula region in particular...

Liberal International News Bulletin.
Issue 209. November 18, 2010.
After Russian journalist for the Kommersant newspaper,
Oleg Kashin was severely beaten outside his home in Moscow
on 6 November, LI full member YABLOKO has issued a press
statement condemning the attacks and demanding that authorities
launch investigations into the attack: “The YABLOKO
party states that it is ready to participate in an independent
investigation of the circumstances of this crime and render
all possible assistance as well as human and organizational
resources to Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Mikhailin and the
team of the Kommersant paper.” YABLOKO leaders also
picketed outside the Moscow Interior Office with other
journalists and political activists to demand investigative
action. Mr. Kashin's editor said that the attacks were
retribution for articles he had recently written covering
anti-Kremlin protests and extremist rallies against the
building of a highway through Khimki forest outside Moscow
which has now been put on hold by the government. Attacks
on journalists are not uncommon in Russia. Human rights
groups say there have been 19 unsolved murders of journalists
since 2000 and that investigations into attacks lead nowhere.MORE

On November 14, the YABLOKO party conducted
a federal action against political terror launched against
journalists and civil activists. Such a picket was held
in Kirov.

At noon six activists of YABLOKO’s regional
branch unfolded YABLOKO’s flags and placards “Search for
truth = a way to death?”, “Who will protect the defenders?”
and “Uninvestigated attacks [on journalists and human
rights actvists]= a disgrace of the state!” Denis Shadrin,
deputy head of the regional branch of YABLOKO told to
the “Reporter” that attack against journalist Oleg Kashin
was the reason for organizing the picket. “This incident
was the law straw that breaks the camel’s back, as there
were cases of violence against representatives of the
media and civil activists,” Shadrin said. “The lives of
the people who are telling the truth to the society are
very important and should be in safety.” The goal of the
picket was to draw the attention of the authorities to
this problem...

On November 14, several one-person pickets
demanding to stop persecutions of civil activists and
journalists took place in Samara.Five people participated
in picketing at the Heroes of the 21 Army Square (including
journalist from the Echo Moskvi radio station Gor Melkonyan
and head of YABLOKO’s regional branch Igor Yermolenko),
five more people came to support the picket.

The participants of the action held a
placard “Stop persecuting civil activists and journalists!”,
another placard contained names of activists and journalists
murdered or injured for the past years and a questions
“Who’s next?”...

About 500 people came to a rally against
political terror which took place in Moscow today, despite
of the fact that only 300 people were allowed for the
rally by the authorities. The rally was initiated by the
YABLOKO party, the Movement for Protection of the Khimki
Forest and a number of other public organisations. The
action was conducted on the second anniversary of attack
on Mikhail Beketov, Editor-in-Chief of the Khimki Pravda
paper, who was left handicapped due to grave injuries.
The participants of the rally also paid tribute to other
journalists and public activists – victims of “political
bandits”...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
made a report on situation in Russia at the meeting of
Liberal International Executive Committee which is taking
place in Cape Town, South African Republic.

Mitrokhin began his report with bad news.
He told about an attack on civil activist Konstantin Fetisov
and journalist Oleg Kashin. “Such crimes become
more frequent, as they go unpunished,” stressed
YABLOKO’s leader.

According to Mitrokhin, “in words
Russian leaders advocate the rule of law and democracy.
But their deeds strikingly differ from their declarations”.
“The Russian authorities are unable to ensure implementation
of laws in the country. But they widely practice arbitrary
use of law as an instrument for protection of their political
and economic interests,” he noted.

Regional elections are falsified, which
demonstrates insecurity of the ruling party’s position.
“High popularity ratings of Putin and Medvedev and
very low rates of public trust to the state and public
institutes demonstrate instability of our political system,”
Mitrokhin said...

It has become increasingly dangerous to
state one’s position in Russia. For the past week
civil activist Konstantin Fektistov and journalist Oleg
Kashin were beaten almost to death and severely injured.
Such crimes become more frequent,
as they go unpunished. Murders of well-known journalist
Anna Politkovskaya, lawyer Stanislav Markelov and human
rights activist Natalia Estemirova are still uninvestigated.

For the past years our party YABLOKO lost
several our friends and colleagues – journalists
and human rights activists Larissa Yudina, Yuri Schekochikhin
and Farid Babayev. These crimes are still uninvestigated.
The fact that crimes against politicians, journalists
and human rights activists are unpunished gives rise to
new crimes.

The Russian authorities are unable to
ensure implementation of laws in the country. But they
widely practice arbitrary use of law as an instrument
for protection of their political and economic interests...

On Sunday, November 14, YABLOKO will hold
a rally by the office of the ruling United Russia party
in Ekaterinburg. The action will take place on the anniversary
of the attack on Mikhail Beketov, Editor-in-Chief of the
Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper, and will be dedicated to
all civil activists and journalists - victims of attacks
and assaults...

"I believe that it is the ruling
party, represented by its youth organisations, which has
been fueling the fire of a deadly feud, fascism, and search
of enemies in their country. I think that what we see
today is just a consequence of this policy. I believe
that violence can be ended only be means of civil protest
and joining effort by all civil and political forces.
Kremlin’s ideologists should realise that we will
not tolerate such things", said Maxim Petlin, leader
of the Sverdlovsk branch of YABLOKO and member of Ekaterinburg
City Duma...

YABLOKO’s Federal Council meeting
took place on November 5-6, 2010. The Federal Council
is YABLOKO’s representative body and comprises about
170 people...

...In the document entitled “On
the New Political Course” the Federal Council states
the YABLOKO “considers qualitative evolutionary
changes in Russia’s political and economic system
by the key political task”. “We are reaffirming
our the commitment to the principles and objectives stated
in the Programme of the YABLOKO party - the Democratic
manifesto. Construction of a modern democratic welfare
state of the European type which would expresses the interests
of the civil society and be controlled by it is the only
possible way of Russia’s development. There is no
other strategy for preservation and development of Russia,”
runs the document...

Today YABLOKO has obtained a permission
from the Moscow Mayor’s office to conduct a rally
against political terror on November 14. The rally will
take place by the Giboyedov monument at Chistiye Prudi.
The rally marks the sad anniversary of an attack against
journalist and Editor-in-Chief of the Khimki Pravda paper
Mikhail Beketov left handicapped because of the injuries
(Mikhail was one of the activists protecting the Khimki
Forest near Moscow and criticizing the local authorities),
and will be commemorate all the journalists and human
rights activists who were injured or murdered. The participants
of the action will speak about Konstantin Fetisov, activist
protecting the Khimiki Forest, and journalist of the Kommersant
paper Oleg Kashin who were severely injured several days
ago...

Statement by YABLOKO’s Political
Committee, November 4, 2010 (published on November 7,
2010)

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
has been watching the trial of the second case of Mikhail
Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev with unflagging concern
the. The party insists that the prosecution has been selective
and therefore politically biased. The party urges the
court to demonstrate its independence, professionalism
and civic consciousness in making its verdict and not
to take into account the highly questionable arguments
of the prosecution...

Krasnodar police did not allow to conduct
a rally in memory of the victims of political reprisals
on October 30. Movement For Krasnodar informed kasparov.ru
about this. Citizens came to the memorial action with
placards and flowers, however, the police stopped the
rally... Organiser of the action and member of the local
branch of YABLOKO Sergei Surma is facing a law suit for
attempted organisation of an unsanctioned rally...

Activists and leaders of the YABLOKO party
participated in the Returning of the Names action organised
by the Memorial human rights society. The action took
place on the threashold of the Memory Day of the Victims
of Political Reprisals.

Muscovites made a long queue to read out
the names of the victims of Stalin’s terror. Each
of the participants obtained a list with the list containing
names of the victims of political reprisals of 1937-1938,
their age, post and the date of execution. Ending the
reading with the words “we shall never forget them”
the participants of the action put a candle by the Solovetsky
Stone...

Ivan Bolshakov, Deputy Chairman of the
Moscow branch of YABLOKO, who was sentenced to five years
of probation in 2008 for his alleged “breaking an
arm” to a policeman when police was dispersing a
sanctioned rally in the South Butovo, Moscow, appealed
against the verdict in the Supreme Court of the Russian
Federation. Bolshakov asks the Supreme Court to abrogate
the verdict all the subsequent decisions of the Moscow
City Court in view of absence of crime in his actions,
as well as in connection with the falsification of the
criminal case against him by the law enforcement and multiple
violations of the law during the trial...

Tomorrow, on October 29, on the threashold
of the Memory Day of the Victims of Political Reprisals,
the Memorial human rights society organises the Returning
of the Names action by the Solovetsky Stone, Lubyanka
square, Moscow. The participants of the action in turn
will read our loud the names of the people shot in Moscow
during Stalin’s reprisals. The action will be held
from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The leaders and activists of the YABLOKO
party will read the names of the victims of Stalin’s
reprisals at 2 p.m. Over 30,000 people were shot in Moscow
only during 1937-1938...

...… 18. Calls on the Russian authorities
to comply with all the rulings of the European Court of
Human Rights and to implement measures to rectify violations
in individual cases, including by ensuring that effective
investigations are conducted and by holding the perpetrators
accountable, and to adopt general measures to implement
the rulings, including policy and legal changes to prevent
similar violations recurring;
19. Recommends that the state authorities at federal,
regional and local level start a constructive dialogue
with civil society activists so that functioning democratic
structures can develop;
20. Calls for the EU-Russia human rights consultations
to be stepped up and urges that this consultation process
be opened up to effective input from the European Parliament,
the Duma, the Russian judicial authorities and civil society
and human rights organisations; calls on Russia to respect
fully its obligations as a member of the OSCE and of the
Council of Europe;
21. Draws particular attention to the situation of thousands
of North Caucasus refugees in EU Member States, with special
reference to the diaspora from Chechnya living in Austria,
which amounts to at least 20 000 people, including many
minors; expresses serious concern, in that connection,
at the murder of a Chechen refugee in Vienna in May 2010
and the grave allegations regarding the Chechen President’s
implication in that crime; calls for the EU Member States
to implement a more coordinated, coherent and visible
policy on the protection of North Caucasus refugees on
European soil, in accordance with their humanitarian and
human rights obligations;
22. Instructs its President to forward this resolution
to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments
of the Member States, the Government and Parliament of
the Russian Federation, the OSCE and the Council of Europe.MORE

She was killed on June 7, 1998. The perpetrators
and the organiser of this murder – S.Vaskin who
had had several criminal records and served as Legal Advisor
to the President of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, were
found and convicted.

However, the person who ordered the murder
has not been named yet, in spite of the fact that the
investigation knows his name...

Today the European Court of Human Rights
admitted the complaint on the results of parliamentary
elections of 2003 submitted by YABLOKO, CPRF and several
individuals including Sergei Ivanenko, Vladimir Ryzhkov,
Irina Khakamada, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Solovyov and
journalists Eugeni Kiselyov and Dmitry Muratov. The claim
will be examined at the Court’s meeting shortly.

Now the plaintiffs and the Government
of Russia should give answers on the follow-up questions
set by the court. Before the claim was submitted to Strasburg,
the claim was examined by Russian courts. In 2004 the
Supreme Court of Russia rejected the claim...

On October 22, the birthday of Larissa
Yudina, Editor-in-Chief of Sovietskaya Kalmykia newspaper,
murdered in July 1998, the YABLOKO party will conduct
a party in her memory. The party is devoted not only to
Larissa Yudina, but to all the journalists who died implementing
their work...

YABLOKO is going to perform public control
over the population census conducted in Russia from October
14 through October 25. According to mass media reports,
as well as information from web blogs and forums, the
census is accompanied by mass-scale violations of citizens’
rights. The Russian Statistical Agency (Rosstat) concluded
agreements with Moscow universities so that to employ
students as census takers. However, students are made
to work mandatory and are freed from their classes during
this period. Those who do not agree to skip classes are
threatened with expelling from their universities. The
students are made to work 12 hours a day (from 9 a.m.
to 9 p.m.) without any guarantees of a wage pay. Moreover,
they are not allowed to get their copies of such labour
contracts which is another violation of the law.

According to mass media, in some Russian
region census takers demand from the citizens, in violation
of the law “On the All-Russia Census”, to
provide their passport data. It also turned out that census
stations are headed mostly by the ruling United Russia
party members. A number of census stations are even located
in United Russia offices. YABLOKO
expresses its concern that the census data will be used
by the ruling party in its political goals...

The fourth March in Support of St.Petersburg
took place in St.Petersburg on October 9. According to
the organizers, about 3,000 people came to this action
which was conducted in a form of rally-concert. The action
was initiated by Zhivoi Gorog (Living City) movement,
Civil Initiatives Movement, St.Petersburg YABLOKO and
members of St.Petersburg branch of the Society for Preservation
of Historical and Cultural Heritage (VOOPIiK). Other participants
of the action were St.Petersburg Youth YABLOKO, the Federation
of Social Youth, United People’s Front, the Women
Voters’ League, environmental human rights centre
Bellona, EKOM, the Okhta Curve, Let Us Preserve Yuntolovo,
For the Protection of the Vassiliyevsky Island, Bashne.Net,
Solidarity, Defence, Russian People’s Democratic
Union, St.Petersburg Human Rights Council, Association
of Small and Medium Businesses, different initiative groups
and many other. The key topic was the protest against
building of the Okhta Centre which will spoil the historical
environment of the city. The participants also called
to preserve the historical centre of St.Petersburg and
protect parks and gardens in the city. Many participants
spoke about the need to return elections of St.Petersburg
Governor and called the present Governor Valentina Matviyenko
to resign...

About 500 people gathered for a rally
in protection of an oak wood in Khimki, Moscow region,
on October 10. This time the authorities decided to cut
the wood under construction of an elite housing complex
with a quay for yachts in the water protection zone of
the Moscow Canal. The action joined together local residents,
activists of the Movement for Protection of Khimki Forest
and YABLOKO’s activists. YABLOKO’s leader
Sergei Mitrokhin.

After the rally two unidentified men saying
that they are from the Police Department on Economic Crimes
tried to detain Mitrokhin. However, they refused to show
their credentials...

The Kalmykian branch of YABLKO conducted
a picket in Elista against federal law 83 targeted at
commercialization of education and healthcare. The law
envisages virtual transfer to paid services in education
and healthcare violating the constitutional right of the
Russian citizens to free education and healthcare...

Past week President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev
conducted a meeting for discussion of the draft federal
law “On Police”. At the meeting the President
also spoke on two amendments proposed by the YABLOKO party.

A special web-site created for public
discussion of the draft law on police demonstrated that
eight out of ten amendments proposed by YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin to the new law were in the top
of the public voting rating...

A rally of indignant parents took place
at Taras Shevchenko embankment, Moscow. The participants
of the rally protested against introduction of paid education
and healthcare, as well as all-through commercialisation
of the education sector. Activists and leaders of the
YABLOKO party participated in the rally.
The changes in the federal law No 83 virtually form a
legislative basis under introduction of paid education
and healthcare and curbing the sphere of free services
to virtually nothing, thus violating constitutional rights
of the citizens to free education and healthcare.

“This law violated Article 34 of
the Russian Constitution which guarantees comprehensive
gratuitous education. It is targeted against modernization,
as two thirds of the population will be doomed to semi-illiteracy.
In contrast to President’s wishes not only they
will be unable to develop new technologies, but even to
realise what they are about,” YABLOKO’s leader
Sergei Mitrokhin said at the rally...

On September 24 activists of the Youth
YABLOKO are going to hand to Education Minister Andrei
Fursenko invitation to the rally which will be conducted
by outraged parents in Moscow tomorrow. The participants
of the rally protest against mass-scale dismissals of
teachers all over the country planned y the Education
Ministry, as well as all-through commercialisation of
the education sector...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
continues to insist that "Governor of the Moscow
region Boris Gromov bears the political responsibility
for everything happening in the Moscow region, including
the situation with crime, which allows [criminals] to
attempt lives of public figures"...

Governor of the Moscow region Boris Gromov
applied to court stating that Mitrokhin’s speech
at rally on November 16, 2009, on the anniversary of the
attack against Beketov. Mitrokhin’s speech appeared
at YouTube and was also published at YABLOKO’s web-site.
The Governor of the Moscow region
demanded compensation of moral damages amounting to RUR
500,000, however, the court cut this amount to RUR 20,000
(approx. USD 670)...

YABLOKO begins collecting coments and
signatures from the citizens and experts to its amendments
to the draft law on police with the help of a specially
created web-site. The web-site will be opened for comments
until September 15. YABLOKO has already prepared a package
of amendments to the draft law on police which was loudly
announced by the government as a more democratic law than
the present.

The draft was for the first time published
in the Internet for a feed-back from the public. The developers
of the law had stated that one of the key goals of the
draft was creation of police instead of the present “militia”.
However, experts, journalists and ordinary citizens were
shocked by the draft as it provided unprecedented powers
to the police envisaging virtually no control over it
and considerably worsening the situation for the society.
According to some experts, the law will turn the country
into a large concentration camp...

Public Prosecutors of Mordovia and Karachayevo-Cherkessia
submitted their orders to the parliaments of these republics
requiring them to eliminate violations of the law "On
Ensuring Public Access to Information About the Activities
of State Bodies". From now on the parliaments of
the republics are obliged to publish draft laws at their
official websites.

In July, the Yabloko party forwarded to
the Public Prosecutor General a list of the 29 regions
violating the federal law, which from this year requires
from the legislative assemblies to publish the draft laws
in the Internet. YABLOKO’s activists say that publication
of draft laws "is important for public control over
the laws to be adopted"...

YABLOKO conducted a picket by representation
of the Tula region in Moscow in support of deputy of the
Tula City Duma from the YABLOKO party Vladimir Timakov.
A criminal case was filed against Timakov for his criticism
of the Governor of the Tula region Vyacheslav Dudka (“The
Governor is responsible for the rise of corruption in
the region”). It should be noted that, in accordance
with Russian law, libel cases may be filed either within
the criminal or the civil process. However, all the recent
cases against journalists or dissenting people who dared
to criticize the officials were raised within criminal
process...

Vladimir Timakov is the only politician
in the Tula region who dared to criticize the Governor.
Timakov laid the blame for record high corruption in the
region on Governor Dudka.

Timakov was already found guilty in two
civil trials. He was also fined RUR 1.5 mln (approx. USD
500,000) for the moral damage to the Governor. The possessions
in the flat where Timakov’s family lives (he has
several children) is sequestered for the debt. The list
of such property includes a fridge, a washing machine,
books, icons, children’s furniture. Timakov also
faces up to three years of imprisonment.

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO expresses
its categorical protest in connection with a court’s sentence
to renowned human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov. This
sentence is another example demonstrating the use of force
when citizens try to realise their constitutional rights.
Grave violations of the law and the use of force in detentions
and fraudulent evidence in trials have become an everyday
practice for the interior. The courts acting in Stalin’s
style are guided by the idea that the law enforcement
are always right and protesting or dissenting citizens
are necessarily criminals.

“The YABLOKO party welcomes the decision by President
Medvedev to suspend works in the Khimki Forest. We hope
that the route of the new highway Moscow – St.Petersburg
will be revised,” said YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin.

Mitrokhin also noted that YABLOKO has been fighting against
the present project of the highway envisaging cutting
of a substantial part of the Khimki Forest for three years
already, since this project emerged.

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
considers Sergei Makhnatkin (Ed. A passer-by arrested
during breaking of a peaceful protest action in the centre
of Moscow on December 31, 2010, who tried to protect a
woman from violence by the police and sentenced to two
years of imprisonment under a pretext of using violence
against police) unfairly and unjustly convicted.

Police officers have been systematically
demonstrating their extremely low qualification in dealing
with unauthorized peaceful public actions, their inability
to solve tasks without violence bordering on cruelty against
women, elderly citizens and passers-by...

The YABLOKO Party has repeatedly drawn
attention to the unacceptable negligence by the Russian
authorities to ensuring of environmental safety of
the population. Today we once again are drawing the
attention of the authorities and the citizens to the
danger of possible additional radiation exposure caused
by the pyrogenic spread of radionuclides. Forest fires
in Russia have already reached the Bryansk forests
contaminated by Chernobyl’s fallout, and the
forests around the city of Ozersk in the Chelyabinsk
region polluted by the plutonium productions...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin demanded
from Public Prosecutor to file a criminal case against Alexander
Semchenko, head of the Teplotekhnik company felling trees in
Khimki Forest. In his interview to Komsomolskaya Pravda paper
Semchenko told that he had organised an attack of football fans
on the defenders of the forest.

Semchenko also admitted that he had
employed a group of persons for provocations against
ecologists and other citizens...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
demands from Minister of Extraordinary Situations
Sergei Shoigu and President of the Republic of Mordovia
Nikolai Merkushkin to adopt urgent measures for evacuation
of the prisoners from the Potma prison camp encircled
by forest fires. At present
Mitrokhin is preparing an application to the Public
Prosecutor demanding to conduct an audit on liquidation
of the Potma-Barashyevo railroad which connected over
20 camps, and basing on the results of the audit to
file a criminal case against the heads of the Federal
Service for Execution of Punishment. Due to dismantling
of the railroad 15,000 prisoners can die in fires...

Leader of the Movement in Protection
of the Khimki Forest Yevgenia Chirikova, her aid Yaroslav
Nikienko and YABLOKO’s activist and defender
of Chirikova Artur Grokhovsky have been just detained
when leaving the Khimki police department where Chirikova
has been interrogated and are being taken to court.
According to Grokhovsky, the court of the first instance
will hear the case of disobeying the police when police
was dispersing the activists from ecologists’
camp on July 28. Then police accused ecologists of
burning fires. The detained were escorted to the local
police department where they were detained for nine
hours. The following day only ecologist Elena Maksimova
was summoned to court.

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
urged Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to establish
a moratorium on the felling of forests in the Khimki
area "at least until the end of fires and lifting
of the of the emergency situation regime in the Moscow
region." The photographs
attached to the letter show the signs of fire-hazardous
activities in the work of woodcutters and securities
protecting them, in particular, a fire they had made
in their camp and cans with fuel for chainsaws simply
scattered throughout the clearance.

"In spite of the order by the
Moscow Region Governor Boris Gromov on limiting access
of citizens to forests in the Moscow region, dozens
of voluntary assistants to the Teplotekhnik company
are supporting felling of the forest and their work
can also contribute to fire development,” runs
the statement...

YABLOKO’s activists Olga Ushakova
and Andrei Lazaryev conducted picketing of the Interior
Affairs Department of the Moscow Region where the
police took today Yevgenia Chirikova for interrogation.
YABLOKO’s activists demanded to release the ecologist.

After the end of a press-conference
in the Independent Press Centre the police virtually
kidnapped Chirikova on the eyes of journalists. Without
giving any explanations three policemen from the OMON
division (the riot police) twisting her arms took
Chirikova to their car (strange, but the car number
was ordinary, not one of the special numbers belonging
to police) while journalists and ecologists were pushed
off with police chains...

...“We have such a situation
in Khimki that the smallest gathering of people is
prohibited and dispersed, while the efficiency of
the police work from the point of view of the law
and the citizens has been falling towards zero,”
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin told in his
speech at the picket. According to Mitrokhin, an attack
against journalist Mikhail Beketov is still uninvestigated
(editor-in-chief of and independent Khimki Pravda
paper defending the Khimki Forest who was beaten virtually
to death and left to die. To-date Beketov is handicapped),
and none of the policemen dared to opposed the attack
of hooligans against the Khimki administration. “The
Khimki police is not simply exercising arbitrary rule,
it is even dangerous for the society,” Mitrokhin
added...

“Now we have a so-called “mini-Stalinism”
in Khimki: they can detain a person on the street
under faked pretexts and get him imprisoned. We had
this in our history only in Stalin’s period,”
the ecologist said. She also said that the ecologists
were not protesting against construction of a highway
in general, “We only want the highway to change
its route and go past the forest”. This is especially
important, she added, when we have such extremely
hot summer and many forests are on fire. “We
should preserve every tree,” Chirikiva said...

Yesterday court ruled out that Sergei
Mitrokhin was guilty of disobeying police orders and
organization of unsanctioned rally in defence of the
Khimki Forest and sentenced to a fine RUR 500. The
court’s decision stated that Sergei Mitrokhin
organized an unsanctioned rally. When a policeman,
according to the court’s statement, came up
to him, gave his name and politely asked to leave
the site of action, Mitrokhin refused to do this disobeying
the police.The court included into the case a video
material showing only policemen taking Mitrokhin into
the police car. Moreover the video recording had been
done from a long distance...

...At this moment YABLOKO is picketing
by the Criminal Police Department of the Moscow Region
protesting against arbitrary rule of the Khimki police.
The activists are holding slogans “Heads of
the Khimki police to trial!”, “Put an
end to arbitrary rule by the Khimki police!”...

...“The second charge was fabricated
right after I demanded to release me, as the first
charge had already been announced,” Mitrokhin said.
He also noted that the second charge may be needed
so that to convoy him to court.

It should be also noted that the six
activists with the same charges and detained together
with Mitrokhin have been still kept in the police
department for over three hours already in violation
of the law.

...Ten minutes after the meeting of
the ecologists began the police came to the site and
began detaining all the men present at the meeting.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin was one of the first
detainees. Wringing his hands the policemen forced
him to come into their car making him sit on the floor,
virtually in the luggage compartment...

One of the defenders of the Khimki
Forest Gennadi Rogozin was detained by police for
the second time on July 31.

On July 28 the riot police (OMON)
broke into the defenders’ camp. Nine ecologists
were kept in the police department throughout the
whole night and driven to court the following morning.
However, the judge heard only one case – that
of Elena Maksimova – the rest were released
without issuing any notifications of summoning them
to court to some other date.

On the same evening the activists
reported being under police surveillance. Policemen
visited the activists’ homes and questioning
their next-of-kin about the whereabouts of the activists.

Police has begun persecution of the
activists from the "In defense of the Khimki
Forest" movement and Euvgenia Chirikova, the
movement’s leader. According to the defenders
of the forest, yesterday they found out that they
were under surveillance, police officers came to their
homes without informing their relatives of the purpose
of the visit. Also the activists did not get any official
notifications from the police.

"Yesterday, shortly after we came out of the
court of the Khimki town, we found our that we were
under surveillance. It a stout man in a white suit.
However, we managed to escape him: luckily we quickly
got into a taxi and headed to Moscow", Yaroslav
Nikitenko, Aid of Euvgenia Chirikova said...

Today on July 30, YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin applied to Prime Minister
Putin and Public Prosecutor General Chaika in view
of unlawful cutting of the Khimki Forest.

According to the federal law "On
Highways”, "cutting of the woods is only
possible after obtaining a permission for construction
of a highway. The Forestry Code requires that every
user of the forests should obtain a land declaration.
The normative acts of the town of Khimki require obtaining
of a special cutting ticket, which should be supplied
with a dendroplan and a tally sheet. According to
our data, all of these documents are missing, thus
cutting of the woods is unlawful,” runs Mitrokhin’s
letter to Public Prosecutor General...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
and party activists once again managed to stop cutting
of the woods in the Khimki Forest.

Mitrokhin told the workers about the
order of Public Prosecutor to stop all the works.
After this the driver of a harvester stopped his work
and was going to leave the site. However, one of the
guards from the private security company tried to
stop him, however, the driver refused to resume work.
At the same time the other guards were calling their
chiefs...

Despite Public Prosecutor’s
ban the workers of the Phobos company constructing
the Moscow-St.Petersburg highway continue cutting
of the Khimki forest. Vyacheslav Sorokin, whose house
is located in 200 meters from the Khimki Forest, informed
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin of it today...

At present YABLOKO’s leader
Sergei Mitrokhin is in Public Prosecutor’s office
in Khimki filing an application of unlawful actions
by the police.

The police confiscated mobile phones
of nine detained ecologists and journalists, thus
depriving them of an opportunity to get in touch with
lawyers and get a legal consultation.

The police officer on duty told Mitrokhin
that confiscation of mobile phones was lawful, and
the activists are kept in the wards. The police issued
protocols of administrative violation (disobeying
the police orders) against them, which can involve
such punishment as 15 days of arrest. The leader of
the defenders of the Khimki Forest Yevgenia Chirikova
(who is one of the nine detained ecologists) managed
to tell Mitrokhin that the policemen referred to an
order of the Moscow Region Governor Boris Gromov who
“had prohibited any persons to appear in the
Forest”...

At night of July 28 special riot police
(OMON) broke into the camp of the Khimki Forest defenders
made close to the cutting site. The police detained
16 persons, including the leader of the ecologist
Yevgeniya Chirikova and five journalists.

However, YABLOKO and ecologists continue
defending the Khimki Forest. YABLOKO’s experts
state that the highway Moscow – St.Petersburg
can well take one of the alternative routs without
going through the Khimki Forest which is acting as
the “lungs” of the region. Cutting of
the woods has been held without any permits. Representatives
of the construction company did not come to the scheduled
meeting with the ecologists and residents of Khimki
where they had promised to show “all the due
permits”.

The meeting of the residents of the
Khimki city, the Moscow regions, and Sergei Mitrokhin
with representatives of OOO Teplotekhnik conducting
cutting of the woods in the Khimki Forest is postponed
for an undetermined period.

At the agreed time (June 28, 5 p.m.)
the residents of the city and YABLOKO’s leader
and party activists came to the meeting. However,
the doors were closed and a sheet of paper notifying
that the meeting is “postponed” was pinned
on the doors. The notification gave no time or date
of the new meeting.

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
and party activists will participate in the meeting
of the residents of the Khimki district with representatives
of a contracting company eliminating the Khimki Forest.
The hearings will take place at 5 p.m. in the Dom
Kulturi Rodina (address: Khimki, Leninsky prospect
2, by the Khimki railway station in the Leo Tolstoy
Park).

Please note that tonight despite an
announced moratorium on construction works and cutting
of the woods, OAO Teplotekhnik continued cutting of
the trees. According to the witnesses the work was
conducted under spotlights. It is expected that after
public hearings the participants of the meeting will
go to the place of cuttings so that to stop unlawful
works.

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
stopped construction works in the place of destructed
architectural heritage in Tishinsky lane, Moscow.
Despite a ban of the Moscow regulator the builders
began excavation works. After arrival of Sergei Mitrokhin
the workers disappeared.

The building at Bolshoi Tishinsky
30/44 building 1, was built in the early 20th century
by the architect Nirnzeye and was almost completely
destroyed in 2008. Under the pretext of renovation
the construction company left only a corner wall of
the building. The residents of the area jointly with
the YABLOKO party have been fighting against construction
of a new building with a multi-level underground garage
on the site of the destructed monument of architecture
for two years. In early May 2010, head of the Moscow
construction complex Vladimir Resin said that the
contract with the developer - the Phobos company –
was dissolved...

Today on July 26, a one-person picketing
under the slogan “Medvedev, do not be a FSB
puppet!” was conducted at the Red Square. YABLOKO’s
Artur Grokhovsky was holding a placard picturing the
“KGB men” - Felix Dzerzhinsky, Lavrenty
Beria and Vladimir Putin – and a photograph
of President Dmitry Medvedev tied to their fingers.

YABLOKO called the President not to
sign the law broadening of the proxies of secret services.
The police detained the activist who was picketing
at the Red Square, broke the placard picturing the
“KGB men” and their “puppet”
President Medvedev. Also, allegedly a FSB (Federal
Security Service) officer tried to wipe out all the
records from the journalists’ cameras and recorders
and also tried to break a camera...

...The Russian United Democratic
Party YABLOKO calls the human rights community and
democratic politicians to defend the constitutional
rights of the Khimki activists and render them all
possible assistance. This is the case, when Russia’s
civil society has virtually shown itself and dared
to resist the big money and the state machinery. Its
support in this confrontation is far more important
than hundreds of rallies in defense of democracy in
general.

We also fully support the requirements
of the defenders of the Khimki Forest. Destruction
of a unique natural complex providing fresh air to
the capital of Russia will bring to nothing all the
talks about modernization and demonstrate to Russian
citizens and the entire world the inability of the
Russian state to modernise...

One-person picketing against broadening
of the competence of secret services was conducted
by the Federation Council (the upper chamber of the
Russian parliament) as the latter had to examine the
draft law today on July 19. Artur Grokhovsky, Advisor
to YABLOKO’s Chairman, was holding a huge placard
(1.5 x 1 meters) picturing Felix Dzerzhinsky, the
head of the KGB, Lavrenty Beria, Stalin’s closest
accomplice standing behind mass-scale reprisals and
Vladimir Putin with an inscription “The KGB
men are for it!”...

An action in memory of renowned human
rights activist Natalya Estemirova kidnapped and murdered
a year ago in took place in Nevsky Prospect, St.Petersburg,
on July 16, 2010. Activists from the YABLOKO party,
Memorial and The House of Peace and Non-Violence dressed
in T-shirts with a photograph of Natalya marched along
the main street of the city Nevsky prospect and distributed
leaflets about the killed human rights activist among
passers-by. The latter asked questions about Natalya
and about the news of the investigation...

Three activists of the Youth YABLOKO
were detained by police by the State Duma (the Russian
parliament) when attempting to conduct a protest action
against introduction of amendments broadening the
competence of secret services (FSB).

Today deputies of the State Duma are
to consider the draft law in the final third reading.
YABLOKO’s activists came to the State Duma disguised
as prisoners with a placard, a scaling ladder and
leaflets...

Deputy Chairman of the Moscow branch
of YABLOKO Galina Mikhalyova and young YABLOKO’s
activist Igor Savyolov were found guilty of committing
a misdemeanor and fined 500 rubles each. The cases
of the other two activists - Maxim Kruglov and Arthur
Grokhovsky - were postponed until July 23 as the policemen
were late for the trial.
The decision states violation of Article 20.2 of the
Code of Administrative Offences (Violation of the
set order in organsing or conducting a gathering,
rally, demonstration, march or picketing”).

YABLOKO’s activist had to stand
before court for holding a one-person picket by the
State Duma on June 11 - when the draft law for broadening
of the proxies of the secret service (FSB) was examined
by the Duma in the first reading. Galina Mikhalyova
stood by the walls of the State Duma with a placard
while of other party activists waiting for their turn
at a distance. The police detained
all the activists of YABLOKO despite the fact that
a one-person picketing was conducted only by Galina
Mikhalyova.

"The example of this particular
case demonstrates that our courts are biased and not
impartial. The court’s decision was not guided
by fraudulent administrative violation cases provided
by police rather than by Russian laws," Mikhalyova
said...

The Tula regional branch of the YABLOKO
party expresses its deep concern with criminal prosecution
of deputy of the Tula City Duma from our party Vladimir
TImakov [launched under a pretext of a libel case].

Timakov gave his assessment of the
Governor’s work at his post.

Actually Timakov’s statements
are based on his believes, and, in our view, there
are no grounds for criminal prosecution in our opinion
no. The fact that the Investigation Committee with
the Public Prosecutor's Office in the Tula region
three times refused [the Governor] in launching a
criminal case for the lack of the elements of crime
[in such criticism] is one more proof of this.

In our opinion, this constitutes a
demonstrative political "bashing" of a dissenting
oppositional politician and journalist so that to
force him stop his activities and give up his believes...

“The President’s statement crosses
out the course towards modernisation he has proclaimed.
Amendments proposed to the law on the Federal Security
Service demonstrate that instead of building a modern
state in Russia the President has been restoring the
most archaic institutions of the totalitarian past,”
YABLOKO’s leader said.

According to Mitrokhin no one but
corrupted bureaucracy which is afraid of the people
and tries to maintain at any price its power and riches
accumulated with the help of this power needs these
amendments.

Today President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev
said at a joint press-conference with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel that the draft law “has been developed
on his order”. However, the draft law was submitted
to the parliament by Chair of the Government Vladimir
Putin...

Judge Olga Borovkova sent the cases
of three activists of the Youth branch of YABLOKO
(Kirill Goncharov, Vladislav Pankov and Igor Savyelov),
who had chained themselves on July 9 with handcuffs
to the fence of the State Duma in protest against
broadening of proxies of the Russian secret service
(FSB). The judge detected numerous violations in issuing
the protocols. Motivated decisions will be handed
to Stanislav Gorlov who defends the activists tomorrow.
Hearing of the case of the fourth activist Veronica
Belozerskikh has not yet been scheduled yet...

The detained activists of the Youth
YABLOKO and Artur Grokhovsky, Advisor to Sergei Mitrokhin,
are facing 15 days of arrest in accordance with Article
19.3 of the Administrative Violation Code “Non-obeying
to the lawful police order”.
Protocols on administrative violations by the activists
were made in the Tverkoye police station, Moscow.
“I access this as an act of moral pressure,”
Artur Grokhovsky said over the phone. YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin told that this constituted
an attempt of intimidation of the activists as they
had dared to oppose Vladimir Putin’s initiative...”

Four activists of the Youth YABLOKO
were detained by police after they enchained themselves
with handcuffs by the State Duma (the Russian parliament)
protesting against the new security service (FSB,
the former KGB) law. Artur Grokhovsky, Advisor to
party Chair Sergei Mitrokhin, was also detained.
“YABLOKO has been conducting this action protesting
against adoption of the draft law broadening the proxies
of the FSB. Today deputies of the State Duma has to
examine the draft law in the second reading. Artur
Grokhovsky stood by the entrance to the parliament
building with a placard picturing Byeria (Stalin’s
main accomplice), Dzerzhinsky and Putin with an inscription
“Amendments to the FSB law – the KGB men are for it!”
with the signatures YABLOKO had collected against
this law...

July 3 marks seven years since the
death of an outstanding journalist and fighter against
corruption Yuri Schekochikhin.

On this day the Russian United Democratic
Party YABLOKO considers it necessary to remind to
Russia’s leadership that the circumstances of
the death of Yuri Schekochikhin have not been determined.

The decision on termination of the
investigation adopted by the Investigation Committee
of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in 2009 demonstrates
inability or lack of desire of the present Russian
state to conduct a full-fledged investigation...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
expressed his satisfaction with the decision of the
Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on
the complaint from YABLOKO’s member Andrei Malitsky.

The Constitutional Court ruled out
that some provisions on the Russian Federaiton law
“On the Basic Guarantees of Franchise and the
Right to Referendum” connected with a ban for
the citizens residing in a foreign state to be members
of electoral commissions. Being a Russian citizen
Malitsky obtained in 2009 a residence permit in Lithuania.
Due to this fact he was expelled from a territorial
electoral commission in Moscow where he represented
YABLOKO’s interests...

Svetlana Kuznetsova, head of the Soldiers’
Mothers faction in the YABLOKO party, says that “YABLOKO
is categorically against the amendments referring
to a legalized “buy-out” from the army
service, as they are discriminatory and targeted at
commercialization of the army. The authors of the
amendments say that the state does not have enough
money for a contract-based army; whereas every such
one million roubles [about USD 30,000 paid by a young
person wishing to avoid mandatory military service]
will suffice for maintenance of two contract soldiers.
Since 2001 YABLOKO has been insisting that the state
has enough money on a contract army and our economists
can prove that”...

Action against mandatory army conscription
organised by the Youth YABLOKO took place by the Ministry
of Defence on June 15. Ten YABLOKO’s activists
were holding a slogan “How many of us should
die so that you abolish mandatory army conscription?”
and also chanted “Away with mandatory army conscription,
let’s transfer to a contract conscription!”...

...The picket resumed at the Gogol
Boulvalrd. The organiser of the action Kirill Gontcharov
stated that incessant chain of deaths of young conscripts
made YABLOKO to hold such an action. He also noted
that “due to corruption only children from poor
families serve in the army”. “Instead
of defending our motherland our soldiers have to build
country houses for generals and clean water closets,”
he added. He also said that “harassment of subordinates
became a symbol of the Russian army”...

..Major Brezhnev personally participated
in detaining Grokhovsky: first he dragged Artur to
the police car and then hit him in the belly. Now
Anton is heading to the hospital to certify the bruises.

Grokhovsky also told that in February
he had been already arrested by the same policeman
for one-person picketing. Due to the video recording
made by YABLOKO Grokhovsky was acquitted by the court
then. Grokhovsky hopes that the court will acquit
the activists this time too, as the action was also
recorded...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
expressed his indignation with police breaking of
YABLOKO’s one-person picket and arresting the activists
protesting against the amendments to the law on the
Federal Security Service (former KGB) by the Russian
parliament building. No permission or coordination
with authorities is required for conducting one-person
pickets in accordance with the Russian law. Nevertheless
the picket was brutally broken and the activists were
arrested.

Mitrokhin said that actions by police
officers who arrested the activist holding the placard,
as well as three other activists who were standing
by were a rude violation of the Constitution and the
law “On assemblies, meetings, demonstrations and pickets”...

Action against introduction of amendments
on the law on the Federal Security Service (the former
KGB), which YABLOKO attempted to hold today by the
building of the State Duma (the Russian Parliament)
was brutally broken by police. Despite of the fact
that it was a one-person picketing (four activists
had to replace each other in turn) and did not require
any permissions or notifications from the authorities,
four YABLOKO’s activists were arrested and taken
to the local police department and a placard depicting
the head of KGB Felix Dzerzhinsky, the closest accomplice
of Stalin in setting terror in the country Lavrenty
Beria, and Vladimir Putin and bearing a the words
"The KGB people vote FOR it!" was confiscated.

On June 11, at 9.30 am, half an hour
before the plenary session the Russian parliament
had to start, First Deputy Chair of the Moscow Yabloko
Galina Mikhalyova took her place by the main entrance
to the parliament building with a placard depicting
Felix Dzerzhinsky, Lavrenty Beria and Vladimir Putin
against a black ground and a hand voting for them.
“The law on preventing extremism. The KGB people
vote FOR it!" ran the slogan under the picture.
The Russian parliament will discuss this draft law
in the first reading today...

Yuri Schekochikhin is an event in
the lives of all of us, an event both in our journalism
and in politics. Whatever he did - wrote play scripts,
engaged in journalist investigation or worked as a
Russian parliament member – all was very different
from how other people did this, all had an imprint
of his personality, talent and his understanding of
freedom and justice.

Yuri Petrovich was not merely a politician
in the ordinary sense or the word, he understood life
as the one who had the ability to transform it. A
special atmosphere always emerged around him, and
there was place for different people by his side.
And he still unites us all, we do not simply keep
memories of him, but feel his presence in our life.

Today, on June 7, on the tragic anniversary
of the murder of leader of Kalmyk YABLOKO and oppositional
journalist Larissa Yudina took place by Representation
of the Republic of Kalmykia in Moscow. The participants
of the action demanded to release the names of those
who ordered the murder of Larissa Yudina, who, according
to YABLOKO’s data, were determined by the investigation.
“We can not rule out that [President of the
Republic] Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was the one who personally
ordered the murder,” Sergei Mitrokhin said at
the picket.

Today it is the 12th anniversary since
the murder of Larissa Yudina, the leader of Kalmyk
YABLOKO, editor-in-chief of Sovietskaya Kalmykia Segodnya
and main opponent of the President of the Republic
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. On this day YABLOKO’s activists
brought portraits of their murdered colleague and
lit candles by the Representation of the Republic
of Kalmykia in Moscow...

Mitrokhin promised that YABLOKO will
hold the action by Representation of the Republic
of Kalmykia every year until those who ordered the
murder are punished.

The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO consders the reaction of the authorities to
the protest actions that took place in Moscow, St.Petersburg
and other Russian cities yesterday be unacceptable
and absurd.

A deliberately tough use of obviously
superior police forces against the groups of citizens
who simply expressed their opinion without endangering
anyone’s security represents a proof of inability
of state officials, top officials inclusive, to adequately
assess the situation in the country...

Today, on the International Children’s
Day, the YABLOKO party conducted a series of one-person
pickets by the Ministry of Health Care and Social
Development demanding raising of children’s
allowances to the child’s subsistence minimum.
YABLOKO’s activists demonstrated what a person
can buy with child’s allowance amounting to
RUR 750 (approximately USD 25 per month).

The Moscow authorities did not give
their permit to conduct this action. The activists
held placards “Raise the allowance to the subsistence
minimum!” and “Subsistence minimum of
RUR 7,006 = children’s allowance of RUR 750?”...

Russia’s Ombudsman and one of
the founders of the YABLOKO party Vladimir Lukin published
Report - 2009. The Report deals with the most acute
problems of human rights in Russia, provides information
on Ombudsman’s activities, including dealing
with citizens’ requests, interaction with the
state bodes and civil society institutes, analysis
of the present law in the field of human rights, as
well as proposals on its further development. The
key factor determining the composition of Lukin’s
Report was the dynamics of developments in the field
of human rights in Russia...

The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO has already made several statements that Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov’s regime in the Republic of Kalmykia
is one of the ugliest developments in Russia’s
political history of the past two decades representing
a disgusting mixture of authoritarian rule, corruption
and criminal.

Fight against this regime has in 1998
taken the life of Larissa Yudina, Chair of the Kalmyk
regional branch of YABLOKO, and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s
aid was found guilty of this murder. The political
responsibility for this crime lies, in our view, completely
on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov...

The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO once again conveys its condolences to the
relatives and next-of-kin of the miners killed during
the accident at the Raspadskaya mine. Regardless of
the specific reasons leading to the accident at the
mine, it is obvious that the problem is system-driven.
This is confirmed by another accident at the Alexeyevskaya
mine which followed the accident at Raspadskaya.

The owners of the mines set such rules
and regulations which make the miners to neglect the
safety requirement and risk their lives so that to
get more or less adequate wages. A civilised dialogue
with the employer turns out to be impossible: the
owners of the mines being aware that the miners will
not be able to find another job talk with them from
a position of force. The possibilities of a labour
dispute or a strike are restricted by law...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
will dispute in court the General Plan of Moscow.
“Procedural violations in development and adoption
of the Plan were considerable. We shall apply to court
as soon as the General Plan is published,” Mitrokhin
said...

Mitrokhin also offered to the Moscow
residents whose interests will be affected by the
Plan to apply to YABLOKO for help...

The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO expresses support to Andrei Malitsky in his
litigation of the norm of the Federal Law “On
the Basic Guarantees of Franchise and the Right to
Participate in a Referendum”.

According to the present norm of the
law, a citizen of the Russian Federation having residence
permits in other states is not allowed to be member
of electoral commission...

The YABLOKO party has motioned a suit
in the first instance court demanding to oblige the
Moscow authorities to provide a state expertise the
State Plan of Moscow Development. “According
to our information, the State Plan of Moscow Development
has not received a positive conclusion from the state
expertise in spite of the fact that Mosgosekspertiza
(Moscow State Expertise Agency) under the Moscow Government
was mandated to conduct it. As far as we know, most
experts were dissatisfied with the solution of transport
problems in the new plan,” runs the statement
signed by YABLOKO’s Chair Sergei Mitrokhin...

...This problem can be solved only
via a dialogue with the workers. Russian large business
treating independent trade unions like enemies will
no go for such a dialogue, therefore, creation of
conditions for such a dialogue should become a direct
responsibility of the authorities of all levels.

Miners have the right to fight for
safe working conditions and decent living. The state
must make a radical revision of the labour law and
change its attitude to the regulators that have to
control implementation of the law.

We are calling President of Russia
to create a special commission for examination of
the justified claims of the miners and development
of social support measures for their families from
the federal budget...

About 1,200 people participated in
the March of Changes organised by YABLOKO on May 1.

The columns of demonstrators with
YABLOKO’s flags and white balloons marched from
the Maly Theatre towards the Lubyanka square. The
leaders of the party, human rights activists and ecologists
held a slogan “For the Changes!”

“For the Changes! For Russia!
For YABLOKO! We are tired of stagnation! No to oligarchia,
yes to democracy!” chanted the demonstrators.
When the columns of demonstrators approached the Federal
Security Service building a slogan “Away with
the power of the KGB!” was heard...

The May 1 March of Changes organised
by YABLOKO will end by a rally. The head of the Moscow
Helsinki Group Ludmila Alexeyeva, the leader of the
movement For the Protection of the Khimki Forest Eugeniya
Chirkova and leaders of the initiative group of the
Rechnik village will speak at the rally.

The participants of the march will
gather by the Maly Theatre at 10:30 a.m. The march
towards the Lubyanka Square will begin at 11:00 a.m.
A rally by the Solobetsky Stone at the Lubyanka Square
will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The participants
of the action will get a budge “I what changes!”
The rally will end by a concern of the Moscow rock
group Sobaki Kachalova.

...Most of violations of the labour
rights are connected with non-observance of the labour
protection law. Direct loss from occupational traumatism
in the Russian Federation is 250 times higher than
in the US and the EU countries. Also the Russian labour
law has many gaps leading to mass-scale lawlessness
of the workers.

For example, the Russian Labour Code
does not contain a notion of labour contract. The
Code does not envisage the responsibility of the employer
to provide work to the employee. The owner of the
company is not liable by his income or property for
the company’s performance and damage to the
health and life of the workers. Thus, the employers
are, on one hand, often interested in bankruptcy of
their companies and even prepare such bankruptcies,
on the other hand, they neglect labour protection
norms considering them unprofitable...

The YABLOKO party demands from the
State Duma to decline the draft law envisaging broadening
of competence of the Federal Security Service (FSB)
connected with the so-called “special preventive
measures” against extremism.

The draft law stipulating that the
FSB has the right to announce to the Russian citizens
official warnings for the actions that can allegedly
cause extremism and arrest them for 15 days for non-obeying
to the lawful demand by the FSB officer creates grounds
for violation of the law by the FSB staff and is targeted
against the dissenting.

Taking into account the lack of transparency
and control of the Russian secret services and an
extremely wide interpretation of the notion “extremist
activity”, as well as systematic bans on rallies
and pickets the draft law initiated by the Russian
government provides unlimited prospects for security
services’ arbitrary rule.

The sanction for non-obeying the warning
distorts the legal liability principle, as the liability
takes place in case of a definite wrongdoing. The
proposed norm envisages in some cases (e.g., for participation
in the actions that are not agreed upon with the authorities)
even tougher liability for the same violations than
envisaged in the present law...

Yesterday, on April 22, the meeting
of the Regional Council of the Moscow YABLOKO discussed
the situation in the Rechnik village.

Ludmila Gaiduk, the leader of the
initiative group of the residents of the village which
had had suffered reprisals from the Moscow authorities,
made a speech at the meeting. She expressed gratitude
to YABLOKO for protection of the village and its residents.

Gaiduk handed to Sergei Mitrokhin
a letter of appreciation. “Thanks to your speech
at the State Council meeting and in the mass media,
organisation of picketing in protection of property
rights and multiple statements by YABLOKO’s
activists we managed to get attention from the country
leader to our problem and pulling down of houses was
stopped,” runs the letter...

The upcoming meeting of the Regional
Council of the Moscow YABLOKO will discuss the situation
in the Rechnik village. The residents of the village
are going to express their gratitude to Sergei Mitrokhin
for protection of their rights and are going to award
him a certificate of honour.

Also the Regional Council of the Moscow
YABLOKO will introduce amendments into the provisions
on the Public Consultative Council of Political Parties
with the Moscow City Duma. These amendments have to
considerably broaden the proxies of the Council...

The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO expresses its extreme concern by the growth
of havoc and violence in Kyrgyzstan, which also led
to the acts of violence and robbery against Russian
citizens and ethnic Russians living in Kyrgyzstan.

In the situation of abrupt weakening
of the power and virtual negligence by the law enforcement,
nationalistic bashing can end in multiple victims.
The duty of the Russian authorities is to prevent
murders of our compatriots, as well as the citizens
of Kyrgyzstan and all other nations that are left
without protection.

We are calling President of Russia
and Prime Minister of Russia to take under their personal
control the issue of preventing mass killings in Kyrgyzstan,
make corresponding public statements and use all the
leverages so that to influence the situation...

The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO calls to release St.Petersburg scientists
Eugeni Afanasyev and Svyatoslav Bobyshev.

Considering the “practices” of work
of the Federal Security Bureau in the recent years
we have all the grounds to state that the accusations
set against the scientists in their alleged transfer
of state secrets to China are groundless.

Any investigation that the law enforcement
consider necessary can be performed without bringing
the scientists in custody. We consider such measure
of restraint as excessive and demonstratively repressive
by nature...

The YABLOKO party supports the action
of the Federation of Russia’s Motorists targeted at
introducing amendments into the traffic rules regulating
the use of special signals on officials’ cars.

The recent developments on the Russian
roads, in particular, a scandal with Presidential
Advisor (the post represents virtually a kind of honourable
discharge) abusing his right of preferential passage
shows the importance of this action and its public
importance...

Today, on April 2, Yekaterinburg district
court turned down the libel claim motioned by the
city Mayor Arkady Chernetsky against deputy of the
city Duma and leader of the local branch of YABLOKO
Maxim Petlin. The court charged the Mayor RUR 20,000
(about USD 700) for compensation of the legal costs
incurred by Maxim Petlin.

Chernetsky started a legal case against Petlin after
the latter said in the TV programme that Chernetsky
had “sold half of kindergartens buildings”.
The Mayor called this phrase a libel and motioned
a libel case against Petlin. The second defender in
the court was Rossiya television channel which had
broadcasted Petlin’s interview and showed an
item on alienation of large number of kindergartens
in favour of Chernetsky’s family members...

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
forwarded to the head of the Investigative Committee
at the Public Prosecutor’s Office Alexander
Bastirkin a second address demanding to start criminal
persecutions on the murder of Chechen farmers gathering
herbs by the Arshty village in Ingushetia on February
11-12...

Mitrokhin’s letter based on
the facts obtained during investigation of the Memorial
human rights centre. Memorial proved that the versions
voiced by the top officials that the militants had
allegedly used the civilians as a shield and that
people had been killed due to the air strikes were
incorrect...

“I realise that after yesterday’s
statement by Umarov [where he took the responsibility
for the acts of terror in the Moscow Metro] the Investigative
Committee may have psychological difficulties with
the adoption of such a decision, however, this body
has to be guided by lawful interests of the citizens
protected by law rather than by bandits’ provocative
statements,” runs Mitrokhin’s letter...

Russia’s Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin
asked Public Prosecutor Yury Chaika to examine whether
the government’s decision to construct a highway Moscow
– St.Petersburg that has to go through the Khimki
forest was lawful.

In accordance with the order of the
Government the lands of the Khimki forest were transferred
to the category of “industrial lands”.

In his letter to Public Prosecutor
Vladimir Lukin noted that the Khimki forest is a protected
natural territory in accordance with the Forestry
Code, thus any cuttings should be prohibited there...

Three activists of the Omsk Youth
YABLOKO organisation arrested at night of March 18
are have been still detained. The Main Interior Department
informs that they are accused of vandalism, however,
the local police department which is detaining the
activists denies this and promises to release the
activists soon.

An annual action in support of freedom
of speech in Belarus has been held at night March
18 – 19. This is a part of international campaign
European Youth Against the Belarus Dictatorship. The
participants of the performance gag statues with banners
saying “Freedom to Belarus!”

Omsk YABLOKO activists Anton Zhebrun,
Mikhail Maglov and Andrei Yermilov were arrested by
police when they were gaging a Dostoyevsky statue.
They were escorted to the local police department
Centralnoye, where they were kept the whole night
without water and food. Anton Zhebrun had a heart
attack, the police called an ambulance. However, the
policemen did not allow the young people to make calls
via their mobile phones...

Officials from Administration of the
Lomonosovsky District of the Leningrad region offered
their apology to Alexander Senotrusov, deputy head
of YABLOKO’s Green faction, for their intention
to dismiss him from school where he had been working
as a teacher and their suspension of functioning of
a children’s club where he also worked. Persecutions
against YABLOKO’s activist began after his interview
to the NTV television channel.

On March 7, NTV released a piece devoted
to the practices of unlawful construction of cottages
in the natural reserves. Alexander Senotrusov told
the journalists about unlawful construction at the
Lebyazhiye village situated on Gulf of Finland shore.

After this the district administration
began persecutions against the teacher. Local bureaucrats
were going to dismiss Alexander Senotrusov as redundant
and also cut off electricity in the children’s
club where he worked.

The YABLOKO party expresses its resolute
protest against the plans of the Moscow government
to restore the [Soviet] system of preservice military
training with regular encampments of schoolchildren
and introduction of the fundamentals of the military
service as a subject in the school curriculum.

We think that the Concept of Preservice
Training of the Young People in Moscow Until 2020
endangers life and health of the young Muscovites
and is targeted at conservation of the present problems
rather than reconstruction of the army, which inevitably
leads to further degradation of the armed forces.

The present system of conscription
to the Armed Forces of Russia serves only for justification
of the existence of the Russian military bureaucracy
and their deriving profits from gratuitous soldiers’
labour. Mass-scale violations of the rights of the
young people of the conscription age and harassment
– derision, beatings and blackmail – have
become a daily reality in the army.

President Dmitry Medvedev's police
reforms will turn into a sham if the public is excluded
from the process and other law enforcement agencies
are left untouched, opposition politicians and human
rights activists said Thursday.

“It is impossible to reform
the Interior Ministry without reforming the prosecutor's
office and the justice system,” Yabloko party
leader Sergei Mitrokhin said at a round table organized
by the Moscow police to discuss the reforms with the
public...

Round table “The Reform of the
Interior Must Meet the Expectations of the Civil Society”
will be conducted on the initiative of Andrei Babushkin,
Deputy Chair of the Moscow YABLOKO and Co-Chair of
the Human Rights faction of the party in the press
centre of the Moscow Interior Department, on Thursday,
February 25.

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
will participate in the round table. Other guest speakers
are:
Ludmila Alexeyeva, the Moscow Helsinki Group,
Valery Gribakin, head of the Information and Public
Relations Department of the Interior Ministry of the
RF,
Alexander Zharov, Ombudsman for the Moscow Region,
Alexander Zimin, leading expert of the Moscow University
of the Interior Ministry,
Svetlana Gannushkina, Grazhdanskoye Sodeistviye (Civil
Support)
Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s ombudsman,
Alexander Muzikantsky, Moscow ombudsman,
Ella Pamfilova, Civil Society and Human Rights Council
under the President of the RF,
Lev Ponomaryov, For the Human Rights movement,
Genry Reznik, Moscow Bar Association...

Picketing for the right of the military
pensioners to decent pensions took place in the centre
of Ufa (Bashkiria) on February 27.

The picket was organised by the Bashkirian
regional branch of the YABLOKO party. The picket was
conducted under the slogan “Decent Pensions to the
Military Pensioners!”

In spite of the fact that 30 activists
had to participate in the action, the actual number
of participants grew to 50. Citizens dissatisfied
with the actions of Bashkirian government, administration
of Ufa and the law enforcement also joined the picket...

Rallies and pickets took place in
different Russia’s cities within the framework
of YABLOKO’s campaign “Decent Pensions
to the Military” on February 23, the Defender
of the Fatherland Day.

About thousand people came to the
rally in Lipetsk demanding to raise scanty military
pensions. Military pensioners, YABLOKO’s activists
and CPRF activists held slogans “Putin to Dismissal!”,
“Military Pension – a Disgrace of the
Government!”...

Four pickets were organised in Novgorod:
YABLOKO’s activists distributed leaflets and
collected signatures under the address to the Russian
President. The residents of the city even queued at
one of the pickets located in the centre of the city
so that to put their signatures under an address to
Dmitry Medvedev demanding to change the system of
calculation of military pensions...

The arrested activists – YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin, General Major Anton Goretsky
and Artur Grokhovsky, aid of YABLOKO’s leader,
spent over an hour in the district court waiting for
hearings on their case. After an hour expired they
went to the courtroom to find out when the hearings
were to take place. However, they saw a judge discussing
something with the OMON policemen who were witnesses
on the case. According to Grokhovsky, several policemen
were standing by the judge’s table and one of
them was even sitting on the table. However, the judge
demanded to close the door and not to interfere into
the discussion.

YABLOKO’s activists left the court in protest
against collusion of the judge and the police, despite
resistance of the policemen who brought them to the
court. “I think that what has happened is a
manifestation of an arbitrary rule and also a humiliation
to General Goretsky who on the Day of the Defender
of the Fatherland was kept in the police station for
three hours and then kept in court,” Mitrokhin
said. “The judge not only behaved incorrectly
towards us, but even tried to make a collusion with
the witnesses who were actually a party in the case,”
he noted.

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
and leader of the Moscow Region YABLOKO General Major
Anton Goretsky were arrested for conducting a picket
in protection of the military pensioners’ rights
that had not been coordinated with the authorities.
The local authorities declined YABLOKO’s application
to conduct picketing by the Ministry of Defence on
February 23 (the Day of Defenders of the Fatherland).
However, the same action had been allowed on January
20.

The participants of the picket held slogans “Scanty
Military Pensions – a Disgrace to the State!”
when about 15 OMON policemen arrested YABLOKO’s
activists and drove them to the local police station.

YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
asked Alexander Bastyrkin, Chair of the Investigative
Committee at the Public Prosecutor's Office of the
Russian Federation, to take under his personal control
investigation of a killing of civilians on the Chechen-Ingush
border during special operation on February 11 –
12, 2010.

“The investigation conducted
on February 13 – 14 by the Memorial human rights
centre showed that the versions worded by the officials
– that civilians had been used by the militants
as a human shield and died because of the air-to-ground
attack – were incorrect,” ran the letter...

At least 70 local civilians engaged
in agricultural works turned out to be in the area
of a special operation. The authorities had the information
about their work in the area, as they had given a
special permit for agricultural works to the local
residents there, however, the officials did not take
measures so that to evacuate people to a safe place.
At least four persons were killed. According to the
Memorial’s data they were gunned at a short
range and possibly fired “insurance” shots
afterwards.

On February 17 (about 7 a.m.) Olga
Galkina, deputy of the municipal council of the Morskoi
district from the YABLOKO party found out leaflets
on the block of flats where she lived running that
police was allegedly looking for a “dangerous
criminal Maxim Lvovich Reznik accused of grave crimes”...
The leaflets also called the citizens to call the
telephone numbers indicated in the text so that to
help the police to arrest a “dangerous criminal”.
The given telephone numbers turned out to be the numbers
of the local police department, St.Petersburg’s
YABLOKO office and the school where Maxim works as
a teacher of history...

“It is obvious that this mean
action has been paid for and is aiming at exerting
psychological pressure on myself and my relatives.
It is especially mean that these people indicated
telephone number of the school where I work,”
Reznik said. “After today’s provocation
I can not say that the December and January incidents
[when Reznik was arrested by police when he was going
home from a supermarket for alleged “drinking
alcohol in a public place” and attack on their
family car] were a mere coincidence.”

On January 31, 2010, Gelendzhik YABLOKO
conducted a meeting of protest against destruction
of the Utrish relict lagoons, where the Presidential
Property Management Department planned to build a
“sports and recreation complex” and Administration
of the Krasnodar Area – commercial buildings.
Public protest action took place by the city Administration
building.

And already on February 5, Sergei
Buldakov, leader of the local YABLOKO branch was informed
that he was transferred to another work place located
in 57 km from his current place. Alexander Umitbayaev,
Director General of the Vodokanal municipal state
company, where Buldakov worked informed Buldakov of
this transfer.

Governor of the Moscow Region Boris
Gromov motioned a libel suit against YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin who had laid blame for a physical
attack on Editor-in-Chief of Khimskinskaya Pravda
oppositional paper Mikhail Beketov. The official claims
compensation of RUR 500,000 (about USD 16,600) for
the moral damage.

Sergei Mitrokhin stated that the party
had grounds to think that “Administration of
the Khimki city district and personally Head of Administration
Strelchenko supported by Governor Gromov are behind
this crime” during an action held on November
16, 2009 one year after the attack. A
video record of Sergei Mitrokhin’s speech published
at YABLOKO’s web-site was used by the Governor
as an evidence of libel.

On November 13, 2008, Editor-in-Chief
of Khimskinskaya Pravda oppositional paper Mikhail
Beketov who had been opposing the construction of
a paid highway Moscow – St.Petersburg, was found
unconscious in the yard of his house. Doctors stated
a severe head injury, multiple factions and injuries.
Despite treatment Beketov remains a handicapped –
he can not take care of himself and his speech functions
have not restored. The action in support of Beketov
was held under the slogans “Attack on Beketov
Is an Attack on the Freedom of Speech” and “Attack
on Beketov Is Political Terror”.

Social orphanage Zhizn (Life) gives
shelter and normal living conditions to orphans and
social orphans. The orphanage was founded over 15
years ago and helped to about 600 children. The orphanage
does not get any state aid and has been financed by
private donations only.

At present the orphanage has to move
to a new place and its expenditures have abruptly
grown. Zhizn would be grateful for any aid, as it
is moving to empty flats. For bank transfers pls use
the following
banking details (it is important to indicate that
it is charity).

Even if you do not have a possibility
to help us financially, you can help to the orphanage
by spreading information about it.

Today on January 29, 2010, the residents
of the bulldozed Rechnik village together with YABLOKO
activists organised a mobile picket in the form of
automobile race. Since 2-30 p.m. picketing took place
by the RF Government’s building. YABLOKO’s leader
Sergei Mitorkhin took place in the action.The participants
of the picket hold a placard running “Yes to the amnesty
of dachas!” and picturing President Medvedev and Prime
Minister Putin.

“We consider all the developments
in Rechnik complete lawlessness, as not only a law
on the “amnesty” of dachas but also a number of other
laws make bureaucrats to file property title on land
and houses in such cooperatives as Rechnik,” Mitrokhin
told to journalists. “We think that this lawlessness
is performed in the interests of bureaucracy and large
business which would like to use this territory. The
state demonstrates its cynical attitude to the people
who with their own labour made money for construction
of their private houses on legally purchased plots
of land,” he added.

The key problem of Russia’s
political system is monopolism which manifests itself
in three major ways:

1) bodies of power and parliaments
of all levels demonstrate monopoly of one party representing
the interests of bureaucracy and large-scale business
merged with it;
2) complete dominance of the executive over the judicial
authority;
3) dictate of one social class – the bureaucracy
– over all other social groups.
Thus, the present political system generally reproduces
the Soviet system, with its key flaw – the monopoly
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on power.
Such monopoly led to the insensibility of the political
system of the USSR to the challenges of the time.
Attempts to reform the system were considerably belated
and that, consequently, led to a collapse of the USSR.

...In the absence of serious attention
to the raise of political culture and freedom of speech,
elections in our country will become a fest of demagogues
and populists killing the system.

The main problems and goals of the
society and the state in the field of creation of
modern political system and political reform do not
represent a mere correction, they mean bringing of
life and sense into Russian politics.

Only in this case it will be of interest
for the people and will be worthy of their attention.
To achieve this we should first of all raise the level
of public consciousness and open opportunities for
public participation in the power and politics.

We think that to prevent dissolution of the
Russian political system in 2010 – 2012 we need to undertake
the following gradual but nonetheless decisive steps...

Social
Event of the Year for the Political Elite
By Greg Walters and Oksana Yablokova, The Moscow Times,
May 27, 2004
"It's a repetition of an old story," Mitrokhin
said by telephone. "The president says the right
things about poverty, health, education and housing, and
the government ends up doing the opposite. I would describe
it as a boring repetition of previous presidential addresses."

Putin
Seeks Control of Referendums
By Francesca Mereu, The Moscow Times, May 25, 2004
Andrei Ryabov, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center,
said the changes were another step toward creating "a
predictable political system, where the risks to the present
political elite are minimized."

Russian
human rights group wins U.N. refugee award
Reuters, April 30, 2004
"It has carried out its work in often very difficult
situations -- including in the North Caucasus -- and has
earned the respect of all of us in the international humanitarian
community."

I
Am Back Where I Belong
By Yevgenia Albats, The Moscow Times, April 12, 2004
The State Duma has given initial approval to a bill that
would severely restrict the right of assembly. Shortly
after the Duma vote, the Moscow city government denied
the Yabloko party a permit for a May Day demonstration
in downtown Moscow. And finally, the Moscow City Court
convicted arms control researcher Igor Sutyagin of treason
and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

"YABLOKO"
Supporters Stage a Picket by the Duma
RIA "Novosti", March 31, 2004
Picketers were protesting against the draft law on rallies,
meetings, demonstrations, processions and pickets, which
the Duma will discuss in the first reading.

Russian
Bill Curbing Mass Rallies Gains
By David Holley, Los Angeles Times, April 1, 2004
In a move that could push protests largely out of the
public eye, Russia's lower house of parliament gave preliminary
approval Wednesday to a law that would ban demonstrations
from a wide range of places, including areas close to
highways, government buildings and diplomatic missions.

Are
Meetings a Thing of the Past?
Aleksei Levchenko, Rosbalt. Translated by Alex Anderson,
Rosbalt, April 1, 2004
The Duma has adopted a very interesting new law. Deputies
have decided to severely regulate public meetings, marches
and pickets. After carefully reading it, critics of the
new legislation have concluded that the right to hold
any mass meeting will now be in question.

Yabloko
Accuses Government of Violating Constitution
Rosbalt, March 31, 2004
Yabloko says the government's new legislation on limiting
public demonstrations violates the foundation of Russia's
constitution and is aimed at eliminating civil rights
which are guaranteed by Article 31 of the constitution.

Every
Region Should Have Its Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin promised to fight against the "terrible
arbitrary rule of the law and enforcement agencies"
By Kira Latukhina
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, March, 18 Yesterday 25 Russian ombudsmen headed by the new
Ombudsman of Russia Vladimir Lukin left for the meeting
with the PACE Human Rights Commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles
in Strasbourg. Before the trip Lukin held a working meeting
for his colleagues from the regions where press and representatives
from the Presidential Administration were invited. This
was the first public appearance of the former Deputy Speaker
of the State Duma in his new post.

Ombudsman
Prepared to Fight
Interview with Vladimir Lukin by Valery Vyzhutovich, Moscow
News, February 25, 2004
An ombudsman that is unduly admired by the ruling authorities
is a bad ombudsman: This means that instead of defending
citizens' rights, he simply goes through the motions.
This is definitely what I am not going to do. The ombudsman
is duty bound to tread on the authorities' pet corns.

Interview
with Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin
Anchor - Natella Boltyanskaya, Ekho Moskvi, February 13,
2004
You know, Bismark said: "A Russian muzhik harnesses
his horse slowly, but rides fast." It may be bad
but it is better than the other way round, I mean the
prospect of riding fast without harnessing the horse.

Authoritarianism
Deposing 'Clan Democracy'
By Alexander Lukin, The Moscow Times, January 21, 2004
What's happening in Russia today could be described as
the consolidation of an authoritarian regime, or in more
popular jargon, the rise of a dictatorship.

Yukos
Defenders Join Annual Lubyanka Rally
By Maria Danilova, The Moscow Times, October 31, 2003
"This is a rally to commemorate the victims of Stalin's
repressions. There is no room for politics here,"
said Yevgeny Bunimovich, a City Duma deputy who helped
organize the event...

The
Duma Gets out of the Kremlin's Control
By Yelena Rudneva, gazeta.ru October 8, 2003
Defying the Kremlin's stance, and the government's strong
disapproval, State Duma deputies have passed a draft law
on parliamentary inquiries.

A
good man murdered
The Economist (UK), April 26, 2003
POLITICAL killings in Russia are rarely political. Ten
members of the Duma, the lower house of parliament, have
been murdered in the past ten years, plus a host of sundry
other officials. Though the cases are rarely solved, most
carry a strong whiff of corruption or business disputes.
But Sergei Yushenkov, a Duma member shot dead on April
17th outside his home, was - so everyone says - clean.

I think that everybody who is not indifferent to the
fate of freedom and democracy in Russia should demand
from the authorities and the President an investigation
of at least one political crime, to find the perpetrators
of the murder and people who ordered this murder. If this
does not happen, unfortunately such tragedies will be
repeated.

Independent
Prison Inspections UrgedBy Nabi Abdullaev, The Moscow Times,
June 6, 2002Liberal politicians and human rights activists
urged for the passage of a bill that would allow independent
inspections of prisons and visits to inmates Wednesday,
saying such visits would help root out prison abuses...Yabloko
party leader Grigory Yavlinsky said Wednesday that one
reason the bill has gotten bound up in red tape is because
of the peculiarities of existing legislation, an eclectic
mix of Soviet-era laws that put the state's interests
over those of individuals and newer laws that try to respect
human rights. "This is why [the government] says
the bill contradicts so many laws," Yavlinsky said.
"This bill, together with the bill on alternative
military service and attempts to implement a ban on the
death penalty, demonstrates that our legislation is developing
in between these [Soviet and post-Soviet] principles."

Accusations that Moscow spies on party
gain weightBy Michael Wines, The New York Times,
June 21, 2000Russia's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal
Security Service, has yet to comment on the accusation,
posted on the Web site of Russia's Yabloko Party and echoed
in a scathing letter from Yabloko's leader, the federal
legislator Grigory Yavlinsky. But the charge gained weight
this week when two St. Petersburg students who are Yabloko
members claimed that federal agents tried to recruit them
as political spies -- and, when the two refused, engineered
their ejection from St. Petersburg's Baltic State Technical
University.

FSB orders students to spy on YablokoBy Vladimir Kovalyev, The Moscow Times,
June 21, 2000ST. PETERSBURG -- The Yabloko
political movement says federal agents approached two
students active in its ranks and gave them an ultimatum:
Spy on Yabloko from within, or find yourself sent off
to fight in Chechnya. The students at St. Petersburg's
Baltic State University, Dmitry Barkovsky and Konstantin
Suzdal, have laid out their allegations in a letter posted
on Yabloko's web site.

Interview of Grigory YavlinskyORT channel, Interviewer - Sergey Dorenko,
June 17, 2000Two students from St Petersburg
have been victimised for helping Grigory Yavlinsky in
his election campaign. One of them was expelled from the
Institute of the Military Industry, while the other was
refused entrance to the examination session and was then
forced to sign a letter, stating that he had secretly
co-operated with the Federal Investigation Bureau (FSB).
If he refused, he was told that he would be sent to the
war in Chechnya...

... his most important precept was on
morality in politics. Andrei Dmitrievich realised that
appealing to politicians with a request or demand to be
moral is an absolutely hopeless thing. That is why he
formulated this somewhat differently. He said that moral
positions in politics are most practical and most reasonable.
Certainly if the goal is not only personal welfare, but,
at least to some extent, the prospects for the country
and its future; if the goals include how children and
grand-children will live in our country...

Late on December 16, 2000, special correspondent
of the investigations department of “Novaya Gazeta” Oleg
Luriye was attacked. He has over the past year investigated
the Mabitex case (Ed. there have been allegations that
Pavel Borodin, at the time head of the presidential department,
received backhanders from the company responsible for
refurbishing the Kremlin). The day before the attack Oleg
Luriye had spoken on the “Vox Populi” programme (Ed. a
popular talk show on NTV) and had been extremely critical
of the Administration of the President and some oligarchs.

Human Rights Emergency DeclaredBy Sarah Karush, The
Moscow Times, January 22, 2001, p. 5
Prominent politicians and former dissidents joined more
than 1,000 activists in Moscow this weekend to declare
a national emergency for human rights and urge a consolidated
fight to protect the Constitution.